I hear ya, I've already deleted the payment and the bill and re-did the bill applying to the PO.  When doing it this way, I feel I'm asking QB to do something it wasn't designed for.  To me, it seems like a basic and desirable feature to be able to pay for an order and then receive the items later.  I have net30 accounts, but at times I order from new vendors or off of eBay or Amazon and pay with a credit/debit card.  I'd like to be able to create bills and pay them to keep the account up to date, and then receive the items later....

  I may set up a company file just to play with and see if this is "just how it works" of if it's a fluke that it gave me this error, this time.