Reimburse an employee in QuickBooks Online

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Learn how to record or pay back your employees' business-related expenses in QuickBooks Online.

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.

How to pay your employee now

1. Select + New.
2. Select Cheque or Expense.
3. Select the Payee ▼ dropdown and find the name of your employee.
4. Select the Category ▼ dropdown, then select a liability account. Note: If you don't have one yet, you can add a new account.
5. 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) Check 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?)
6. Select Save and close.

How to record the expense for future payments

1. Select + New. then select Journal entry.
2. On the first line:
   1. Under Account, select your liability account.
   2. Under Credits, enter the amount you owe your employee.
   3. Select the Name ▼ dropdown and find the name of your employee.
3. On the second line:
   1. Under Account, select the expense account that fits the purchase your employee made.
   2. Under Debits, enter the amount of purchase.
4. Select Save and close.

After recording 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.

1. Go to Reports (Take me there). Search for Transaction Detail by Account.
2. Open the report, then select Customise.
3. In the General section, select the Report period ▼ dropdown and choose the range of your transaction.
4. In the Rows/Columns section, select the Group By ▼ dropdown, then Employee.
5. In the Filter section, select the Distribution Account ▼ dropdown, then choose the Employee Reimbursement account or the liability account that you created.
6. 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.
7. Select Run report.