keeping track of credit cards in quickbook

Credit card accounts work like bank accounts, only they're on the opposite side of the balance sheet. Instead of assets, they're liabilities. So, when you write a check to buy something, the bank account balance is reduced, and when you make a purchase with a credit card, you credit card balance increases.  That noted, a check and a credit card charge otherwise have the same basic accounting: They both Credit the Bank or CC account and in their simplest form, Debit the expense account (or other account type used) for the purchase.

Similarly they can both use Vendors as the payee, or any other type of name in QuickBooks and neither have anything to do with Accounts Payable, unless they are paying an A/P Bill. And, in the case that they are, there are special transaction types for that case (Bill Payment Checks and Bill Payment Credit Card Charges) which are creating using the Pay Bills feature.

Still, unless you really are receiving bills from the vendor, holding them in A/P for a period, and then paying them with a credit card, there's really no little to no involve Accounts Payable. If you're just purchasing stuff at retail, you can just enter a Credit Card Charge, either in the CC account's register or using the CC form.

If you are appropriately entering A/P Bills to be paid later and then paying them with a CC, use the Pay Bills feature to create the Bill Payment Credit Card Charge before you download the transactions using the bank feeds feature, or at least before you accept and record this type of downloaded transaction. Once recorded, then you can match the downloaded transaction with the existing one instead of adding it to the register.

thank you!

So is it worth importing all of the charges on the credit card that she is paying with her bank account or just the end of the month statement credit?

I apologize for not explaining my question well.

The scenario is that the business credit card is being used for retail purchases. this is then paid off with the bank account.

What is the usual way businesses keep track of this and to what detail.

For example, if she is buys a printer for $500 on Friday and a ream of paper for $30 on Monday with a make believe bank credit card, how should she enter that in quickbooks if she pays it all off at the end of the month with her bank account?

I guess I am just confused on how someone would normally set up a credit card to track the charges and then the credit card statement with the bank account.

sorry, just confused

Hello there, asy.

If the credit card transactions and payments are part of your books, you'll want to record or import them in QuickBooks. You can also connect your credit card account so you don't have to manually record and import them. All transactions made will automatically download in your bank feeds. 

For the purchases made through credit card, you have the option to use a bill and then create a bill payment once it has been paid. After recording the purchases, you can pay your credit card charges to reduce your liability. 

Here's how to pay credit card charges: 

1. Go to the Banking menu, select Write Checks.
2. Select the bank account you want to use for paying the credit card from the Bank account dropdown.
3. Enter the date of your payment and select the name of your credit card company from the Pay to the order of dropdown.
4. Input the amount of your payment.
5. Select the Expenses tab and on the Account dropdown, select your credit card account.

6. Click Save & Close.

For more details in handling your credit card accounts, you can always refer to these articles:

• Set up, use, and pay credit card accounts
• Add and match Bank Feed transactions in QuickBooks Desktop

Don’t hesitate to leave a message below if you have follow-up questions about your transaction. The Community is always here to lend a hand.

I'm trying to find out how to categorized payments made electronically to credit cards when those payments download into QB - should they be recorded as a transfer or a credit card payment? We pay off the credit card each month in full and create a "Bill Payment (Check)" that we record for our bank draft on the vendor profile (we also enter the statement after reconciling as a bill to pay later on the vendor profile.)

We ran into a problem by making an early payment that didn't match anything on the statement and actually was an overpayment of the credit card balance because of usage that was coming up and we wanted sufficient line of credit for that card. We do not have our checking account linked to QB. We created the manual check as usual and it was reconciled in the checking account, but then had trouble on the linked credit card side with what to do since we had the overpayment amount.

I have tried to find info on what to do with payments that show up in downloaded transactions. Honestly, some of the tutorials I have read and watched aren't the same version as ours or don't use the same terminology as what I see in QB so that doesn't really help. We have QB Advanced and are a non-profit.

Hi there, @BJ2008. Allow me to share some information about posting credit card payments.

Creating a check is one way to pay down your credit card. After that, you can match it with the downloaded transaction showing up in your credit card feeds.

1. Select the For Review tab and locate the transaction.
2. Make sure to review the details.
3. Under the Action column, select Match.

Another way is to use the banking download. Since you have your credit card account linked to QuickBooks Online, you can select Record as credit card payment. It will automatically post the payment from your checking account to your credit card account. This option is more efficient as you won't have to create a manual check.

Furthermore, you can make a payment after reconciling a credit card. For the detailed steps, refer to this article: Record your payments to credit cards.

Please let me know if you need more help with categorizing your transactions, @BJ2008. I'm always here to help. Have a good one.