I need help setting up my flea market vendor accounts. Is there a best way to set up so that their rent and their payouts are in the same register?

Hello, DebeeMO.

Let's not give up here. Other than upgrading, I have a workaround you can use to set up your flea market business in QuickBooks Online. 

Before doing the workaround, you'll always have the option to upgrade your current plan to use the Class Tracking feature. When you're ready, here's how you can do it: 

1. Click the Gear icon, then choose Account and Settings.
2. Go to the Billing & Subscription tab. 
3. Under the QuickBooks Online section box, click Upgrade your plan.
4. Under Plus, click the Choose plan button.

If you don't want to upgrade, you can use this workaround to set up your flea market business with the Simple Start plan.

The general idea is to use the sub-customers (as mentioned by LieraMarie_A) for your tenants, and create accounts to track their rent and payouts. 

Creating a customer as the unit space: 

1. Go to Sales then the Customers tab.
2. Click the New customers button.
3. Enter the details of the space 
4. Hit Save. 

To create a sub-customer as the tenants:

1. Go to the Customers tab again, then hit the New customer button.
2. Add the details of the tenant. 
3. Check the Is sub-customer box.
4. Choose where you want to designate the tenant. 
5. Click Save. 

After setting up your tenants, you'll want to create income accounts where you want to track their rent and payouts. Then, you'll want to manually map these to a service. Here's how: 

1. Go to Accounting, then head over to the Chart of Accounts tab.
2. Click the New button. 
3. Select Income as the Account Type.
4. Choose the corresponding Detail Type. 
5. Name the account as "Rent" or anything similar. 
6. Click Save and Close. 

Map the accounts to a service: 

1. Go to Sales again, then head over to the Products and Services tab.
2. Click the New button.
3. Choose Service.
4. Add a name for the service and other details. 
5. Choose the income account you created under Income account.
6. Enter a rate (if you don't have a fixed rate, just leave it blank).
7. Once done, click Save and close. 

When you create a sales receipt or an invoice, simply select the service item. If you have vendors to pay, you can also create a profile for them. Then, make an expense account and use it to an Expense or Check transaction. 

I pulled up a couple of reports after creating an invoice for this workaround. You can check out other reports by going to the Reports menu.

It's better to reach out to an accounting professional before doing this. They can guide you on what particular Detail Type to use for your account, and how you can better record the transactions. 

If you need help setting up other things in QuickBooks Online, you can check our topics and articles here. 

We always offer help whenever you need it. When you get back here, don't hesitate to leave a reply if you have other concerns. You can also post a new thread for other QuickBooks Online questions.