Vendor Bills and the Operating/Reserve Fund Choice - Overview

Recording an expense as a Vendor Bill now works the way it always should have: it increases what you owe (Accounts Payable) and does not touch your cash. Cash only moves later, when you mark that bill paid.

What changed

• Recording a vendor bill no longer reduces your cash balance. It posts to Accounts Payable instead. See "Recording a Vendor Bill."
• Cash moves exactly once, when you mark the bill paid - not once when you record it and again when you pay it.
• A new Operating/Reserve choice appears on every vendor bill. Pick which fund the bill belongs to; it's remembered all the way through payment. See "Choosing Operating or Reserve."
• Marking a bill paid now suggests the right account for you, based on which fund the bill was tagged with. See "Marking a Vendor Bill Paid."

Who this affects

Staff, board members, and property managers with accounting access who record vendor bills. Quick Expense and Direct Payment are unchanged - they were never affected by this issue, since they're already paid the moment you record them. Reimbursements are also unchanged.

Where you'll see this

Open Accounting -> Expenses -> Create Expense and choose Vendor bill as the expense type.

Why this matters

Before this fix, recording a vendor bill pulled money out of your cash account right away, and then marking it paid pulled money out again - the same bill reduced your cash twice, and Accounts Payable (what you actually owe vendors) never reflected anything. If your books ever looked like cash was disappearing faster than it should when vendor bills came in, this was why. Vendor bills recorded before this fix are not automatically corrected - talk to your accounting team if you need a past entry reviewed.

Related: Managing vendors from Accounting · How the expense category sets itself