Overview of importing bills into QuickBooks desktop

In QuickBooks desktop a bill is used to record purchases from Vendors of items (product or services) or expenses (typically expense type accounts) where money is owed to a Vendor. Note You can import bills into QuickBooks (or QuickBooks Online) from Excel spreadsheets, IIF files or text files using Zed Axis software.

Steps to import bills

Follow these steps to import a bill:

Download and install the Zed Axis software on your computer
Open your QuickBooks company file as Administrator and open Zed Axis
Select your text file or spreadsheet which contains the bills that you want to import.
Set up the a Mapping of the columns in your bills import file to the corresponding fields in QuickBooks, as shown below.
Click Import and your bills will be directly added to your QuickBooks company file.

When importing if the Vendor, Item or Expense account do not exist in QuickBooks then Axis will create them during the import.

More help?

For more information about importing bills into QuickBooks, search the Knowledge Base, watch the movies in the Learning Centre, or raise a ticket with Zed Support. The following fields are the principal fields when importing bills into QuickBooks.

Download a Sample Bill Template import tab delimited text file

Demonstration of how to import bills into QuickBooks

Where the fields appear on a bill

Import bills into QuickBooks

Detailed description of fields you can map

QuickBooks field	Type	Description
Vendor Name	Str 41	Name of vendor company, MANDATORY
AP Account	Str 159	Accounts payable file, if not mapped will default to AP Account
Txn Date	Date	Date of the bill
Due Date	Date	Date the bill is due for payment
Ref Number	Str20	Reference number of the bill
Terms	Str31	Vendors payment terms
Memo	Str4095	Memo for the bill
Is Tax Included	Bool	true or false - When tax is included in amounts (CA, UK and AU only)
Exchange Rate	Float	Exchange rate to home currency
Link To Purchase Order	Str 31	The purchase order number to link the whole bill to more
Account	Str159	Expenses Account (from Chart of Account list), full name required
Expense Amount	Amt	Amount for that line.
Expense Memo	Str 4095	Expense line memo
Customer Name	Str 209	CustomerJob name
Class Name	Str 159	Class name
Expense Sales Tax Code	Str 3	Sales Tax code for the Expense account line
Billable Status	Enum	Whether the line is Billable, NotBillable or HasBeenBilled
Sales Rep FullName	Str	Name of the Sales Rep as appears in the QuickBooks Sales Rep list
Data Ext Name1	Str	Name of the Custom field 1 read more
Data Ext Value1	Str	Value for the Custom field 1
Data Ext Name2	Str	Name of the Custom field 2
Data Ext Value2	Str	Value for the Custom field 2
Item Full Name	Str	Item purchased on the bill, full name required
Txn ID	guid	Transaction ID
Txn Line ID	guid	Transaction Line ID
Description	Str4095	Description for the Item purchased
Quantity	Quan	Quantity of the item purchased
Unit Of Measure	Str31	Unit of measure for the item purchased
Cost	Price	Cost of the item purchased
Item Amount	Amt	Line total of the item
Item Customer	Str209	CusotmerJob
Item Class	Str159	Class of line item
Item Sales Tax Code	Str3	Item sales tax code, true or false - When tax is included in amounts (CA, UK and AU only)
Item Billable Status	enum	Item billable status Billable, NotBillable or HasBeenBilled
Item Sales Rep FullName	Str	Name of the Sales Rep as appears in the QuickBooks Sales Rep list
Item Data Ext Name1	Str	Name of the Custom field 1 read more
Item Data Ext Value1	Str	Value for the Custom field 1
Item Data Ext Name2	Str	Name of the Custom field 2
Item Data Ext Value2	Str	Value for the Custom field 2
Override Item Account	Str209
Freight	Amt	The amount of freight charge on the bill see more on shopping cart fields
Insurance	Amt	The amount of insurance charged on the bill see more on shopping cart fields
Line Link To Purchase Order	Str 31	Specify the reference number of the purchase order that you wish to line link to more
Item Lot Number	Str 40	The Lot Number for the item
item Serial Number	Str 4095	The Serial Number for the item (for multiple number on the same item separate by a comma) more here
Item Expiration Date	Date	The Expiration date for the item (date in the format yyyy-mm-dd)

Troubleshooting common error messages:

Error: Target is not reimbursable - This error occurs when you have mapped either the field ItemBillableStatus or BillableStatus and set the value to Billable but you have not mapped the corresponding ItemCustomer or CustomerName or the customer name you have provided is not recognized in QuickBooks. In order for QuickBooks to make the charges billable then a valid Customer must be provided.

Error: The specified name is either invalid or or the wrong type - This error is return when the Vendor Name that has been specified on the Bill is already set up in QuickBooks on another list type such as Customer or Other name, and QuickBooks will not permit a non Vendor type name to be used on a bill.

Error: The specified record does not exist in the list - This error occurs when the Vendor Name that is used on the bill does not exist in QuickBooks and Axis was unable to successfully create the Vendor Name.

By Steve Batten

Article ID: 81, Created: 10/21/2011 at 5:55 AM, Modified: 2/12/2025 at 5:12 AM

Feedback

Thanks to your help our company is now able to import all our monthly bills in about an hour or less. This procedure used to take us about a week, if you count all the errors that are prone to be made and the time spent on correcting them when you are manually entering hundreds of transactions . Zed Axis is a great program, but what it is even greater is the help that you provided. Thank you Steve!
Sincerely,
Francisco
(AFCLS)
Francisco Ortiz (8/19/2015 at 7:54 PM)