How to enter a general journal entry

jtduke44

How to enter a transaction that doesn't involve the normal cash, credit cards, or bank accounts. I.s. a general journal entry.

NotACPA

Use a "self-referencing" transaction ... that is, for the Category in the transaction that reduces the value to $0, use the name of the Account itself, enclosed in Square Brackets.  E.G. [Account Name].

That will reduce the value without creating actual cash.

Frankx

Hi @jtduke44,

I think it needs to be noted that the above advice will NOT accomplish what you stated you wanted to do - namely jtduke44 said:

... debit an expense account TBD.

Rather than using a [Account Name] as the category - you should be using an expense category such as "Equipment expense", or something similar.

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions.  And don't forget to salute the "General Journal"  (old accountants' joke).

Frankx

q_lurker

As a general policy, I will sometimes enter a $0 entry with split categories in a checking or cash account that debits one account/category and credits another account/category.  Need to be careful that the + and - get applied to the right split entries.  In principle I see that as saying I spent the money on this piece of equipment but the money came from that account rather than this (checking) account.  OR  I spent the money on this piece of equipment but at the exact same time I took money from this other account to pay for it, so no money flowed to or from this (checking) account.

I think an accountant (I am not one) might consider that a general journal entry.

[BTW:  I 'unaccepted' a couple of answers that weren't really answers.  Having too many such acceptances tends to confuse the flow since those accepted answers get duplicated at the top of the thread.]  

NotACPA

There's no such thing, in Quicken, as a General Journal ... ergo no "General journal entry".

If you tell us what you're trying to do, we can probably tell you how to do it in Q.

Q, like a general journal, IS a true "double entry" accounting system.  When you specify the category (or account) that's the other side of the transaction, Q will automatically make the "offset entry" into that account or register.

jtduke44

I'm trying to remove a item from the list of fixed assets which was both purchased and then scrapped for zero value last year. No depreciation was taken. I want to credit my Improvements account for a rental property (where it currently sits) and debit an expense account TBD.

NotACPA

Use a "self-referencing" transaction ... that is, for the Category in the transaction that reduces the value to $0, use the name of the Account itself, enclosed in Square Brackets.  E.G. [Account Name].

That will reduce the value without creating actual cash.

Frankx

Hi @jtduke44,

I think it needs to be noted that the above advice will NOT accomplish what you stated you wanted to do - namely jtduke44 said:

... debit an expense account TBD.

Rather than using a [Account Name] as the category - you should be using an expense category such as "Equipment expense", or something similar.

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions.  And don't forget to salute the "General Journal"  (old accountants' joke).

Frankx

q_lurker

As a general policy, I will sometimes enter a $0 entry with split categories in a checking or cash account that debits one account/category and credits another account/category.  Need to be careful that the + and - get applied to the right split entries.  In principle I see that as saying I spent the money on this piece of equipment but the money came from that account rather than this (checking) account.  OR  I spent the money on this piece of equipment but at the exact same time I took money from this other account to pay for it, so no money flowed to or from this (checking) account.

I think an accountant (I am not one) might consider that a general journal entry.

[BTW:  I 'unaccepted' a couple of answers that weren't really answers.  Having too many such acceptances tends to confuse the flow since those accepted answers get duplicated at the top of the thread.]  

jtduke44

Thanks. This was helpful. Thanks also for monitoring other answers which didn't necessarily apply to my question.

luremaker

My tax preparer said to use a general journal entry for my issue. I have 2 businesses and have created accounts for both in my Quicken 2007 for mac. Account A wrote a check to cover a bill because Account B was not available to write any checks at that time. We are considering that transaction as a loan from A to B. Now I want to issue a check back to A as repayment for the loan. I have created an asset account for "Loans to B" and a liability account for "Loans from A". How do I go about making the entries into my registers?

q_lurker

@luremaker I suggest you start a discussion/question thread under one of the Mac topics.  Generally, Quicken does not maintain a "General Journal", but I suspect someone with Mac experience can point you in the right direction.

luremaker

Thanks. I'm real new to this. How do I get to the Mac topics?

Chris_QPW

@luremaker see this:
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7849429/how-to-add-a-post-to-the-community