How to maintain a short supplier listing if every single supplier we need to register?

I completely understand your concern. Please note that assigning a supplier is required when processing Bills in QuickBooks Online. To prevent your supplier list from becoming cluttered over time, you can make a supplier inactive once their transactions are complete and no future business is anticipated.

Here's how:

1. Open your QuickBooks Online account.
2. Navigate to All apps and select Expenses & Bills.
3. Choose the supplier's name.
4. Click the dropdown arrow next to the Edit button and select Make inactive.

Alternatively, if you've already paid for the purchase and don't need to track an outstanding bill, you can use the Expense or Cheque feature instead. QuickBooks allows you to save these transactions with the supplier field left blank.

I’ll keep this thread open in case you have any details to share or follow-up questions!