Payment date for invoices - entering old or batches of information

Thanks for choosing QuickBooks Self-Employed as your accounting system, Aitch.

We don't want you to feel upset on your first few days of using our system. I'm here to help you with entering the transactions.

The better way to enter batch transactions is to connect your financial institution. This way, they are added automatically and we can avoid the errors that can occur with the manual data entry.

Since you don't want to connect your bank, you can continue importing the transaction using the CSV file. Though, we also need to make sure all information is correct especially the dates.

If you choose to link your bank account to the system, it's not necessary to log in everyday since transactions are automatically downloaded. You can view them on the Transactions page. But in your case, it'd be best to log in everyday to enter the transactions. 

I've got you some articles that you can check out:

• Add a new transaction in QuickBooks Self-Employed
• What happens when you send an invoice?

We're just here if you need our help. Just leave a comment below and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. 

Thanks - finding it all very confusing!   I cannot connect a business bank account as I don't have one.   Also, I am trying to get almost a year's worth collected into SE and it says you can't auto import those over 4 months ago.   I am also concerned about security. 

I have two personal bank accounts into which payments go - one's all business transactions in an e-account but the other is a personal current account with some business income paid into it.   Payments out are largely from the current account for convenience or a credit card.   I pay "drawings" into current account as needed from the e-account.

I read that SE doesn't record a payment against an invoice until it is in the bank, so I took the csv option.  I downloaded all the credit transactions from both accounts and uploaded  the csv files from both accounts.  I Intended to set up two named accounts plus poss a credit card one in SE, but found it all went into an account called "cash".   It seems there is just this one account option in Self Employed?  I have not uploaded any debits as they're in my personal current account, or paid for in cash, or paid from a personal credit card.   This is common enough for a self-employed person. 

I have entered just one invoice from last April - as a starting point.   So, how do I go about matching it up with an entry in the "bank" transactions?  It doesn't give me the option to match a payment up to an invoice number.   I am at a loss to know what to do now!

This is beginning to feel as if it is going to be simply too difficult and instead of saving me time it will increase the time and thus the stress!

Let me help ease your doubts, @Aitch.

I appreciate you for taking your time getting back to us and for sharing additional details on your concern. I’d like to have this opportunity to share to you how QuickBooks Self-Employed handles bank connections and recording your transactions.

To start with, Intuit puts a great value on its customer’s privacy and security. Whether you you connect your business bank account or personal one, we have put the same level of security in integrating your account. Thus, QuickBooks Self-Employed has secured read-only connection with any of its supported bank account. By doing so, QuickBooks Self-Employed will only rely on the data that your bank is willing to share with us. Also, the system cannot make any changes on your transactions once it is downloaded in the system nor it will affect the transactions posted in your bank’s website. For additional insights, you may check out this article: About secure bank connections.

On the other hand, Cash account is default account in QuickBooks Self-Employed. Currently, the ability to create a bank account in the system manually is not yet available. I understand how beneficial it is for you and your business to be able to manually set up a bank account in the system. I’ll make sure to pass along your request to the Product Development Team for consideration in future updates.

Since you opted to import your transactions using a CSV file, these transactions will be recorded in your Cash accounts.

Lastly, when you received payments for the invoice you’ve sent to your customer, you’ll have to click the Mark as paid link in the Action column. Here’s how:

1. Go to Invoice tab.
2. Look for the specific invoice.
3. Under Action column, click Mark as paid.

To record the payments made, you can manually add the payment as an income transaction. Here’s how:

1. Go to Transactions page.
2. Click the Add Transaction button.
3. Enter the payment details.
4. Make sure to select Income as its category.
5. Hit Save.

If the payment transaction is part of the CSV file you’re about to import, there’s no need to add the payment manually. Just make sure to categorize transactions as Business: Income.

That should do it! Keep me posted on how things work on your end. I’m always here to help you manage bank transactions and invoices in QuickBooks Self-Employed.