How to record owners contributions with personal funds?

Hello BookBee,

I know these kinds of transactions that can mix business and personal funds can be tricky, so it's great to see that you're looking to clarify how to work with them in QuickBooks Online. I can point you toward a resource that may help with sorting this out so that you can get back to the books.

First off, I'd like to note that I see you've commented previously in the US QuickBooks Community. Where we are right now is the Canada QuickBooks Community, so if you're looking for help with the US product, I recommend popping back over to the US side to make sure you get the right steps for your QuickBooks. There are some differences between the products, so it's best to make sure you're working with the correct team.

If you are working with the Canadian version of QuickBooks Online, I have the following article to share with you: Pay for business expenses with personal funds. I know there may be certain ways that owner's funds have to be considered, but I still recommend taking a look at this article to see if what's described would be useful for your needs.

Other bookkeeping and accountant users may still comment on this thread with their recommendations, so keep an eye out for that as well! It may also be worth checking in with any colleagues you have to see if they've worked with QuickBooks Online and this sort of transaction in the past.

I hope this has been helpful! Have a great day. :)

Hello @BookBee ,

This would be handled differently depending on whether the owner owns a sole proprietorship company or an incorporated company.  If the owner is a sole proprietor, set up three Equity Accounts.

1.  Top level account called Owner's Equity.

2.  Sub account under Owner's Equity called Owner's Capital.

3.  Sub account under Owner's Equity called Owner's Draws.

Do not ever post to the top-level account.  Post everything in Owner's Capital or Owner's Draws accounts and the total of the two will roll-up to the top-level account.

To enter company expenses paid for by owner with personal funds:

1.  Open Expense Transactions and create a new transaction.

2.  Select vendor.

3.  Enter as many lines as necessary with appropriate expense categories and tax codes.

4.  In the last line, enter the Owner's Capital in category, in Description you might note something like "Expense paid personally by owner", then enter a negative number for the entire total of the bill, including taxes.

5.  Net effect is that you have an expense that is recorded properly, ITC for the GST or HST is recorded on the purchase and becomes part of your tax reports, the Owner's Capital account is recorded correctly, and you have a $0.00 Bill, meaning the company has no liability to this vendor.

If this company is incorporated:

Follow the same steps as above except you would call your Equity accounts by the name Shareholder Loan instead of Owner's Capital.  You could set up as follows:

1.  Top level account, Shareholder Loan

2.  Sub-account Shareholder Contributions

3.  Sub-account Shareholder Withdrawals

Again, you do not post anything directly to the top-level account, but only to the sub-accounts.  The amount owing to the Shareholder or owing to the company will be evident by the rolled-up total in Shareholder Loan.

Enter the expenses the same way as above, substituting the Shareholder Contributions account instead of the Owner's Equity account.

If you receive a bill from a vendor that the company is going to pay but the expenses are personal in nature:

1.  Open Expense Transactions and create a new transaction.

2.  Select vendor.

3.  Enter Owner's Draws in category and no tax code.

4.  Save and Close.

5.  Net effect is that you have a liablity to that vendor which is recorded properly, no tax implications because this is a personal expense, the Owner's Capital account is recorded correctly as a Draw.

If any of these transactions are paid by company credit card, they can also be entered the same way.

You can also use JE's to record these transactions, as long as you are comfortable putting everything on the correct side of the accounts re: DR's & CR's.  Also, if using a JE and there is a tax implication because it is a company expense that has been paid personally, then you have to enter the tax line separately, posting directly to the tax account (GST/HST), and then tabbing over and putting in the appropriate tax code.

Hope that helps.  Let me know if you need any other assistance.

Wow. Thank you so much for such a detailed response. You totally saved my day!! Appreciate it so much! Exactly what I was looking for. 

Amazing explanation thank you! Question, if I already have expenses listed in Quickbooks (all paid personally as company is just starting up this October and no income yet) do I simply go into each of those expense lines and enter the owner's capital line to those? 

Any advice on how to record credit card payments?

Hi @jbogh ,

It depends on how you entered the expenses and how you recorded payment of those expenses.  If you paid personally, then yes, the offsetting account to the expenses should be the Owner's/Shareholder's contributions account, as presumably they were paid by a personal bank account or personal credit card that is not being tracked inside the company books.

If you did set up a personal bank account or credit card account in the company's books, then you would always clear it to your Owner's/Shareholder's contributions or draw accounts as the bank/credit card account should always have a $0.00 balance, simply because you normally wouldn't have a personal account mixed in with the company's books.  You can clear these accounts each time you do a transaction, or do it monthly and reconcile them the way you would any other account.  The only difference is that you should always be reconciling to a $0.00 balance, if that makes sense.

Credit card payments would be done the same way.  Best of luck.

@Rochelley I cannot even express how much your comment has helped me. I spoke to 2 quickbooks advisors and neither knew how to enter this. After hours of searching, your comment clearly explained exactly what I was looking for. THANK YOU! I have one additional question - If we wanted to reimburse ourselves for some (but not all) of these business expenses that we paid for personally, what would the steps be in doing this? Thanks again!

Hi there Terra,

It's important that all your transactions are entered properly for your expense totals to be accurate. QuickBooks Online is a great tool able to help you keep track of expenses and sales so you can see the profit of your company. I can point you in the right direction to repay expenses made with personal funds.

If you'd like to reimburse the expenses for an employee, you can do so by either using a cheque or an expense by following the steps in this guide, while for the owner, you can view the steps in this article.

if you have any other questions, feel free to reach out here.

@Rochelley How would we now record a Reimbursement of a business expense that we previously paid for personally?

We are incorporated, so we had recorded the expense as you stated, and created the additional line with a negative number using Shareholders Contributions category.

Now we have transferred the money from our business account to our personal account to reimburse ourselves. But not sure how to record this?

Thanks for your help!