EXPENSED COLUMN

wtcubar

I'm not a accountant..what and how to use the expensed column. google did not give me much help or the quicken book...any good links on the web for me to use?

thanks

Frankx

Hi @wtcubar,

That column is used to keep track of expenses that you've incurred and that you want to recover, by billing a customer for those "reimbursable expenses" in the future.  It is designed to allow you to track the expenses as you go and then pull the expenses into invoices that you send out to your customers/clients at a later date.

Let me know if you have any followups.

Frankx

Tom Young

Not really sure what you're referring to here or what kind of help you're seeking. 

What exactly do you mean by "expensed column?  What are you looking at - what report or screen or whatever - where you see this?

Quicken uses the word "Category" when referring to income and expenses.  I call this "Quicken-speak" because accountants generally use the words "income accounts" and "expense accounts" when referring to these accounts, and they are "accounts" in the same sense as "balance sheet accounts" like checking accounts, credit card accounts, investment accounts, etc., and most accounting programs allow you to open those accounts and make entries to them directly.  Quicken takes a different approach here and doesn't allow you direct access to income and expense accounts (Categories).  In Quicken you must make your entries into the balance sheet accounts if you want to affect an income or expense account (Category). 

Accordingly, if you issue a check out of your checking Account for "rent" say, then you make the entry into your checking Account, reducing the Accounts balance, and in the "Category" box you enter whatever you've named your "rent" Category.

Tell us exactly what help you need here.  Are you trying to come up with a list of expense accounts (Categories) to use?  Quicken, "out of the box", has lots of "standard" Categories you can choose from, but you can modify the names of these Categories to make them more useful to you, add your own Categories, or delete the Quicken Categories (if you've not used them) as you see fit.

Frankx

Hi @wtcubar,

That column is used to keep track of expenses that you've incurred and that you want to recover, by billing a customer for those "reimbursable expenses" in the future.  It is designed to allow you to track the expenses as you go and then pull the expenses into invoices that you send out to your customers/clients at a later date.

Let me know if you have any followups.

Frankx

wtcubar

That makes sense now. I can use it when i buy items for the ranch from my ranch account and need to be paid back from the central ranch account. So once i get paided back, just turn it off again?
thanks

Frankx

Yes, if you are using it as a form of "reminder" to yourself (that's how I am interpreting what you have said) then once you've made the internal transfer, you should "turn it off", just so you don't double dip.

However, I will note that the feature is actually designed by Quicken to be used for external "transfers" - i.e. where there is a third party (customer, or client, etc.) for which you made advances/payments and you would ask for reimbursement from them.  But it will work as a reminder and there is, as far as I can tell, no negative affect on your Quicken file or records (e.g. - checking that box does not cause Quicken to setup a "receivable" for those amounts, without the user actually doing it).

Frankx

wtcubar

So to do best practice in quicken, i should create a customer called Main Ranch. It is managed by another person which at the end of the year i get a percentage of income/expense and other items associated with taxes. I created a business tag X ranch where i will track expenses/income which i do not move to main ranch.
Then i should transfer items expenses that i do not want to pay for over to the main ranch using the customer function.

Frankx

I think I follow what you are doing - essentially you are classifying certain expenses as being related to "Main Ranch" and the others to "X Ranch".  I think that makes sense.

Frankx

ike1562

I think it’s worth noting that when you use the “E” column, and then later bring it into an invoice, your gross receipts figure will no longer match your invoice amounts (customer payment amounts).

This has bothered me for a long while and I now believe the best way is that if you want to remember to invoice for these expenses, go ahead and use the “E” column. Later, when you bring the expenses into the invoice, change the category from what’s brought in (expense) to your gross receipts category.

This will give a less “hidden” idea of what’s going on. Sure, it all balances the other way too, but it looks weird to me when the gross receipts do not match invoice totals and your expenses don’t match what you spent. It probably won’t matter to most, but it’s always bugged me. For a while in fact, I thought it was essentially adding the expense onto the income side, since it appears that the expense is washed in an expense report, but that’s not the case because it reduces your gross receipts figure.

I really believe that Quicken ought to change the category when brought in, to an income category vs forcing me to change it myself on the form.