Setting up a Student Loan for my client

Thanks for joining us in the Community space, Sllopez.

You can set up a liability account to track the student loan and its payment. Here's how:

1. Go to the Gear icon, and select Chart of Accounts.
2. Click New to create a new account.
3. Choose Long Term Liability from the Save account under field, then Other Long Term Liabilities in the Tax form section area.
4. Give a relevant name for the loan, like " Student Loan".
5. Choose when you want to start tracking your finances. In the Balance field, enter the amount in the account, and determine the as-of-date. Enter today's date if you want to start tracking immediately.
6. Select Save and Close.

Then, create a Check to record the payment. I'll show you how.

1. Click the + New icon.
2. Select Check.
3. Add a check number if you plan to send an actual check.
4. In the Category dropdown, select the liability account for the loan.
5. Enter the payment amount.
6. Add any additional fees on the second line and select the appropriate Category dropdown. (optional).
7. Once done, hit Save and close.

You can use Expense if the business bank account transfers the money directly to the loan holder's bank account. For more details, check out this article: Set up a loan in QuickBooks Online.

I also suggest visiting our Help Articles page for a self-help guide. This contains resources that will help you complete your QuickBooks tasks.

Feel free to post again if you have follow-up questions about the loan and its payments. Have a great day.

Thank you for that feed back.  A couple of follow up questions.  So, that all makes sense - I can do that, but is that all true if the liability is not truly the businesses?  It is a previous loan (Masters Degree) that she is just making payments out of her business account.  Didn't know if it would fall under some kind of "owners equity something or other"? Question #2: her business started up a year ago, so would I set the start date of the long term liability in 2022 and back track/correct all the payments in 2022 (previously marked as expenses) to checks/payments?  Thank you!