How to handle funds I receive from a club. [Edited]

Question

I receive funds in advance for items that I purchase for use in the club.  I deposit these funds into my checking account as well as into an account I have named for the club.  When I shop for the items needed, it is usually paid for by my credit card.  I then pay this bill with funds from my checking account.  What would be the best ways to track these expenses from the club account?  Preferably without having to re-enter the spending twice.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Ken Z [Edited - Readability]

q_lurker · Answer

I surmise you are not doing the entire accounting for the club.  It is more simply, they give you some 'cash' in advance, and then you buy the items they need.

If that is the case, I would lean toward using Tags for the club deposits and expenses transactions.  Categorize as you might normally, though you can create some special 'club' categories if need be.  Then run a basic Banking by Tag or Itemized Tag or Income / Expense by Category limited to that Tag to see your status with respect to incoming and outgoing.

Quicken James · Answer

Hello @kenz5103,

Thank you for bringing your question to the Community! I am happy to assist.

If you're looking to track income and expenses in a manual account, there are no easy ways to do that. You will have to track and enter each income/expense multiple times.

As @Sceptic stated above, the best way to track certain transactions for the club would be with categories/subcategories and reports. Creating income and expense categories for the club and use those categories for the clubs transactions.

To track the spending and reimbursements for the club transactions, run a report and customize the report to show only income/expense categories for the club.

* Click on Reports. 
* Open the report type you want to run. (Example: Spending> Income and Expense by Category)
* Click the Customize gear icon in the report.

* Select the Accounts tab and select the accounts the club transactions are in. 
* Select the Categories tab and select the income and expense categories for the club only. 
* Click Ok to create the customized report.

Running this report will show the income and expenses for the categories for the club.

Please let us know if this works for your situation. I look forward to your reply.

Sceptic · Answer

@kenz5103 since you're looking to avoid entering the spending twice, I wonder if a category with subcategories might be sufficient. For example, you could create a parent category such as Club Expenses with subcategories for the different types of purchases.

The credit card purchases could be assigned directly to those subcategories, and when you later pay the credit card bill from checking, that would simply be a transfer rather than another expense entry.

If your primary goal is tracking club-related spending and reimbursements, categories and reports may provide the information you're looking for without adding additional tracking complexity.