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If they used their personal funds to pay a business expense, you can pay them now or record the expense first and pay them later. We'll show you how.
| Note: If you need to reimburse a contractor, make sure they're set up as a supplier. Then, you can add a bill and pay it. |
How to pay your employee now
- Select + New.
- Select Cheque or Expense.
- Select the Payee ▼ dropdown and find the name of your employee.
- Select the Category ▼ dropdown, then select a liability account. Note: If you don't have one yet, you can add a new account.
- Enter the other information:
- Amount: Enter the amount owed to your employee. (Break down the amount into different line items if tracking or making billable for multiple customers.)
- Billable: (Optional) Tick the box under Billable if you wish to offset the expense onto your customer's invoice.
- Customer: (Optional) Select a customer from the dropdown menu if you are looking to track the expense for a specific customer or customers. (Note: The Customer and Billable fields are not available in QuickBooks Online Simple Start, but in QuickBooks Online Plus you may turn on the feature. See How do I turn on Billable Expenses?)
- Select Save and close.
How to record the expense for future payments
- Select + New. then select Journal entry.
- On the first line:
- Under Account, select your liability account.
- Under Credits, enter the amount you owe your employee.
- Select the Name ▼ dropdown and find the name of your employee.
- On the second line:
- Under Account, select the expense account that fits the purchase your employee made.
- Under Debits, enter the amount of purchase.
- Select Save and close.
After recording to your Journal Entry, you can now pay them using a cheque or expense.
How to check your employee reimbursements
If you haven't paid your employee in full, run a Transaction detail report to know how much you still owe them.
- Go to Reports (Take me there). Search for Transaction Detail by Account.
- Open the report, then select Customise.
- In the General section, select the Report period ▼ dropdown and choose the range of your transaction.
- In the Rows/Columns section, select the Group By ▼ dropdown, then Employee.
- In the Filter section, select the Distribution Account ▼ dropdown, then choose the Employee Reimbursement account or the liability account that you created.
- Select the Employee ▼ dropdown, then choose your employee's name. Note: If you want the report to show what you owe all employees, leave this set to All.
- Select Run report.