Reimbursement / repayment
Looking at year end and seeing that money I laid out for a friend's ticket purchase repayment seems to be categorized incorrectly as income. It is neither income, nor expense, nor a transfer.
The expense is handled as I bought the lot of tickets under Entertainment - neither taxable or income. But how do I treat the money he has repaid me?
It came in from Zelle so shows as a TXFR, hence income. Right now I changed TXFR to CASH and Category as Entertainment but Quicken complains I am adding tit back to the same acount or a message very close to that. But it saves.
Is there a better way to handle this?
Thanks.
Best Answer
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Frankly I think the TXFR being set is a bug in what the financial institution is sending. I know that USAA's checking account downloading was doing the same. It really should have been coded as a deposit. The main reason is because when Quicken is told that something is a transfer it will set that field to TXFR and that will lock you into using a transfer in the category field. The problem with that is as in this case the transfer isn't even from one of your accounts.
So basically, you are forced to remove that setting before you can properly categorize the transaction. Personally, I might have just cleared out the field, but CASH works fine too.
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Answers
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It is an expense that is "refunded". You categorize both the initial payment for the tickets and the repayment in the same expense category. That way they zero each other out.
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"but Quicken complains I am adding tit back to the same account or a message very close to that. "
The only time Quicken makes this complaint is when you make a balance adjustment.
As in if you are in an account called Checking and put in the category of [Checking].
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Thanks, Chris. I'll give that a go.
Can I assume I do change the TXFR to CASH? Or keep the TXFR and just change the Category to Entertainment?
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No, this was changing TXFR to Cash and changing the category from the bank name to entertainment. I should have taken a screen shot. And this is partially whay I am thrown. First when I saw it in a report as income. Second when I tried to change that,
It appears that to zero out the credit card charge as an expense for his share, CASH is the better choice.
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Frankly I think the TXFR being set is a bug in what the financial institution is sending. I know that USAA's checking account downloading was doing the same. It really should have been coded as a deposit. The main reason is because when Quicken is told that something is a transfer it will set that field to TXFR and that will lock you into using a transfer in the category field. The problem with that is as in this case the transfer isn't even from one of your accounts.
So basically, you are forced to remove that setting before you can properly categorize the transaction. Personally, I might have just cleared out the field, but CASH works fine too.
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I will admit that statement might be wrong. Downloading transactions and getting TXFR set is so rare (and always wrong) that I certainly might have not ever seen that message and mistake it for a different one.
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Very cool, thanks again. I agree, the TXFR is what threw everything off and you are correct, if DEPOSIT this would never have become and issue.
Seems fine with CASH and so it shall be.
Thanks Chris.
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@Chris_QPW got one more:)
Interesting what I am finding to clean this year.
I sell a personal item for cash. It is neither income, nor expense, nor transfer. What do I do with that transaction?
Thanks!
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"I sell a personal item for cash. It is neither income, nor expense, nor transfer. What do I do with that transaction?"
If you receive cash and intend to post that cash on your balance sheet then it HAS TO handled, one way or the other, as either income, expense, or end up somewhere else on your balance sheet (a transfer). Of course another option is to simply put the money in your pocket and not post it in Quicken anywhere.
These are your financial statements and if you do want to enter the cash on your balance sheet then do whatever makes the most sense to you.
Assuming that the personal item was expensed when you purchased it, then I probably would opt to simply use that expense Category for the cash received, or just record it as a "miscellaneous" income item. If the personal item was capitalized on your balance sheet then the difference between the cost of that item on the balance sheet (which goes to $0) and the cash received would be a form of "gain" or "loss." If you want to keep track of these sort of transactions then you might create a new (income) Category, but assuming we're talking about relatively small amounts here and nothing that you plan to be doing regularly, then miscellaneous income/expense is a perfect place for that.
Assuming you do have a "Cash" Account in your file, then there's one "magical" way of handling this that doesn't involve and income or expense Category or another Account on your balance sheet. You simply make an entry in the Cash Account for the increase in cash and then in the Category field you use that SAME ACCOUNT name, surrounded by square brackets: [Cash Account]. That kind of entry ONLY affects that one Account and no other Account in the file. (From an accounting perspective it has the effect of increasing your Net Worth, which is an "Account" that you can't see in the file.)
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"Assuming you do have a "Cash" Account in your file, then there's one
"magical" way of handling this that doesn't involve and income or
expense Category or another Account on your balance sheet. You simply
make an entry in the Cash Account for the increase in cash and then in
the Category field you use that SAME ACCOUNT name, surrounded by square
brackets: [Cash Account]. That kind of entry ONLY affects that one
Account and no other Account in the file. (From an accounting
perspective it has the effect of increasing your Net Worth, which is an
"Account" that you can't see in the file.)"This is exactly what I needed. Thanks so much
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