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Record your payments to credit cards

Learn how to record payments you make to your credit cards in QuickBooks Online.

QuickBooks Online allows you to record credit card payments in multiple ways so you can keep track of your expenses and maintain accurate financial reports. In this article, we'll show you how.

Pay down a credit card

This is the main way to record your credit card payments in QuickBooks.

  1. Select + New.
  2. Under Money Out (if you’re in Business view), or Other (if you’re in Accountant view), select Pay down credit card.
  3. Select the credit card you made the payment to.
  4. Enter the payment amount.
  5. Enter the date of the payment.
  6. Select the bank account you paid the credit card with.
  7. If you made a payment with a check, select I made a payment with a check. In the Check no. field, enter the check number, or if you paid electronically, enter the EFT number.
  8. If you want to add notes or file attachments, select Memo and Attachments and follow the instructions on the screen.
  9. Select Save and Close.

Alternative methods

Have you already been using other ways to record credit card payments? You can keep using them if you prefer.

Write a check: If you made a credit card payment using a check, you can record it in QuickBooks by creating a check.

  1. Select + New.
  2. Under Vendors, select Check.
  3. In the Payee field, select the (Vendors name) for the credit card payment.
  4. In the Bank Account field, select the bank account or credit card from which the payment will be made.
  5. Enter a Mailing address and select a Payment date.
  6. In the Check no. field, enter the check number, or If paid electronically, type the EFT.
  7. Uncheck Print Later if the check was already issued.
  8. Enter the Category details and a payment amount.
  9. Enter a description and an amount.
  10. Enter notes under Memo.
  11. Select Save and Close.

Make a payment after reconciling your credit card

Step 1: Reconcile your credit card transactions

  1. Go to Settings ⚙️, then select Reconcile.
  2. If it's your first time, select Get started and Let's do it.
  3. Select the credit card account.
  4. Enter any missing transactions from the statement and adjust any incorrect transactions, if there are any.
  5. Once the difference is zero, select Start reconciling.
  6. In the Reconcile screen, select the checkbox next to the transactions that match the transactions on your statement to mark it as cleared.
  7. Select Finish now, then select Done.

Step 2: Pay your credit card transactions

Choose how you want to pay your bills:

  • Pay all or a portion of the bill now: Pay in full or make a partial payment.
  • Enter a bill to pay later: Moves the balance in the credit card account to Accounts Payable so you can pay it later.
  • Done: If you don't want to record credit card balance payments or bills when reconciling.
Tip: Businesses using Cash Basis, bill, and bill payments for credit cards may show as unapplied cash on the Profit and Loss report.

Use banking download

If the credit card and the bank account you use to pay the credit card expense are connected (bank feeds), you can record the payment by transferring the record.

Transfer the payment

  1. Go to Bookkeeping, select Transactions, and then Expenses (Take me there).
  2. Select the account you need to transfer the payment from.
  3. Select the transaction, then select the Pay down credit card radio button.
  4. Select the Transfer account ▼ drop-down menu and select the account you want to send the transaction to.
  5. Select Confirm.

Alternatively, you can transfer the payment with the Record as transfer option:

  1. Go to Bookkeeping, select Transactions, and select Expenses (Take me there).
  2. Select the account you need to transfer the payment from.
  3. Select the transaction, then select the Record as transfer radio button.
  4. Select the Transfer account ▼ drop-down menu and select the account you want to send the transaction to.
  5. Select Confirm.

Match the transaction

Once you're done with the transfer of the transaction, you need to match it with the new account.

  1. Select the Recognized tab and locate the transaction.
  2. Under the Action column, select Match.

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