Properly Recording Business Expenses In Quicken Home, Business & Rental Property

Quickest

The last time I was self-employed was back in 2006 and I had been using QuickBooks at that time. I'm going back into business for myself and am hoping I can get by with using Quicken Home, Business & Rental Property as opposed to QB.

I upgraded from Quicken Deluxe 2017 to the latest subscription-based Business version yesterday and spent quite a bit of time manually setting up all the basic Schedule C expense categories.

Most of my business related expenses (travel, materials, tools, equipment, etc.) will be purchased through my business credit card and then that credit card bill will be paid using my business checking account. I've got both my new business credit card and checking accounts all set up in Quicken and working properly.

Since the actual expenses will show up as individual credit card transactions, my instinct is to use the credit card register to assign each expense into the proper business expense category.

My first question is in regards to paying the business credit card bill from by business checking account.

To help define my question better, I've got the following three credit card purchases so far:

- Jobsite gang box, assigned to Section 179 (Schedule C, Line 13) for $1,987.07
- Advertising signs and stickers, assigned to Advertising (Schedule C, Line 8) for $159.00
- Quicken Home, Business & Rental Property software, assigned to Office Expenses (Schedule C, Line 18) for $127.19

When I go to write the check to pay the credit card bill of $2,273.26, I need to know what, if anything, I do with the categories. I'd hate to take the time to split the categories into the exact same ones that I've already entered in the credit card register and it seems to me that may cancel them out anyway.

I'm sure I'm missing something simple, but since this version of Quicken seems to only have very rudimentary business features and it has been so long since I was using QuickBooks on a daily basis, that I'm kind of lost here.

There do not appear to be any topics on this subject covered in the FAQ here on this site, the Quicken help file, or in any YouTube videos I've found.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Tom Young

"When I go to write the check to pay the credit card bill of $2,273.26, I need to know what, if anything, I do with the categories." 

In so far as those business expense Categories you've enumerated in your example, you do exactly NOTHING.  You've captured the expense Categories with your accounting of your credit card purchases and each of those purchases has built a credit card liability to the tune of $2,273.26.  When you pay the bill your accounting is:

Debit (decrease) Credit Card Account liability    $2,273.26

Credit (decrease) Cash in Bank asset                            $2,273.26

In Quicken-speak this is a "transfer", reducing your cash and reducing your credit card liability.  You simply record your check in your bank Account with the off set being the credit card Account.  You enclose the name of the credit card Account in square brackets: [Bank Name VISA]

volvogirl

Exactly.  Only enter anything one time.  You are over thinking it.  Here's my notes. Sounds like your instinct is right by entering them into the credit card account.  But to describe it again......

The proper way is to set up a credit card ACCOUNT and enter the charges into it when the purchase is made and assigning it to a category. Then when you pay the bill you TRANSFER the payment from your checking account to the credit card account. Then when you download the payment from the bank you match it to the one you already entered.

When you enter the payment in your checking account you put the credit card account name in for the category using square brackets around the name to indicate it is a transfer...like this… [credit card] or newer versions have a Transfer column.

And for Business categories.....To be included in business reports (and I don't know where else) you have to assign the category to a schedule C tax line item number.  To check the tax line assignment open the Category list by either clicking on the Category Icon or go to Tools-Category List or Ctrl+Shift+C.  Then select the category and right click on it to Edit it.  Click on the Tax Reporting Tab and check the box for Tax related and pick a Schedule C: tax line item.