I need assistance with using splits when making credit card payments

Question

I am on Mac Sonoma 14.2.1 using Checkbook 2.7.27.

When making a credit card payment I pay the bill in full and categorize all of the items on the bill based on the budget item (i.e. groceries, housing, maintenance, vacation, bank charge, entertainment, clothing, etc.)  Although the payment is a debit amount, some of the categorized items might be a negative number due to refunds or credits.  How do I make those individual items a credit?  Example: The total credit card statement might be $100, but the individual categories could be:  groceries=$50, maintenance=$100 and clothing might be a credit of ($50) because I returned some items.  How do I make the $50 a credit entry in a split?

Thank you in advance for any assistance!

Quicken Jasmine · Answer

Hello @AdultInTheRoom,

To clarify, are you using Quicken Classic and experiencing this issue?

Thanks!

volvogirl · Answer

My 2 cents.  To enter credit card....

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. The transactions need to be entered with the date you charged it, not the date you pay the credit card bill.

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.  Then your credit card account should match what you actually owe at any time.

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.

Here's a list of some reasons why you should do it this way…..

You don't have to wait to make the payment and split it out

You won't run out of split lines (I used to use Q2004 and there was only 30)

You can use both the payee and memo fields for more description

You don't have to figure out the difference if you pay a different amount

Then your Credit Card Account will exactly match your statement

Charges get entered with the right date (better at year end for taxes)

You can enter all charges to date, not just what's on the bill - then you can see what you still owe

You won't forget what a charge was for if you enter it right away from the receipt

And if there are multiple categories purchased on a single credit card charge, you can split that one credit card charge to detail the items purchased each with their own category and memo/note.

Jon · Answer

Type a "+" in front of the number. At least, that's how I would do it in modern Quicken Mac; I have no idea what "Checkbook 2.7.27" is.