How to bill/invoice our neighbor for already paid utilities.

It's nice to see you in the Community today, RRPIKW.

Keeping track of your income and expenses is important for organized financial records. I'm here to guide you in the process of tracking your utility expenses and managing their payments efficiently.

Start by adding your new neighbors as customers one at a time and then setting up the loan account. Here's how:

1. In your company file, go to the Customers menu at the top and select Customer Center.
2. Click the + drop-down menu and pick New Customer.
3. Fill out in the fields.
4. Press the OK button. 

To add the account:

1. In your company file, head to the Lists menu at the top and select Chart of Accounts.
2. Click the Account drop-down and pick New to see more options.
3. Tick the Other Account Types button and press the drop-down to select Other Current Asset.
4. Tap the Continue button to proceed and fill in the fields with the appropriate information. For example, enter the Loan with the customer's name in the Account Name box.
5. Press the Save & Close button without entering an opening balance.
   
   

Next, issue a check for the loan and deposit. After that, create a deposit for the payments. Refer to the steps below:

1. Head to the Banking menu at the top bar and select Make Deposits.
2. From the Account dropdown, select the account you used to fund the loan.
3. On the first line, from the Received From drop-down, choose the name of the customer (neighbor) with the loan.
4. In the From Account drop-down, enter the account you've previously created to track the loan. 
5. In the Amount column, input the figure they paid.
6. Fill out the rest of the fields accordingly.
7. Press the Save and close or Save & New button.
   
   

Explore this article discussing loan management techniques, with detailed instructions on tracking cash and non-cash loans: Manually track loans in QuickBooks Desktop.

 Here are some resources I've collected that may come in handy in the future. They offer guidance on managing rental properties, organizing entries into the right categories, and balancing your checkbook. For more comprehensive information, refer to the links below:

• Record transactions for a property management company
• Add and match Bank Feed transactions in QuickBooks Desktop
• Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Desktop
  
  

Should you require any further assistance with tracking your utilities or other transaction types, feel free to leave a comment below. I'll be here to lend a helping hand. Have a great weekend, RRPIKW.

Hi Rasa-LilaM,

Thank you for the response.   I do have a couple questions.

I'm good down to the 'issue a check' and 'deposit'.  They haven't paid us anything yet.  I'm just now billing them for the 1st quarter of the year.  Is it ok to use our customer Invoice to send them a bill?  If not, I don't know how we will bill them.

I think you're telling me to issue a check (but not send it) to the neighbor to get it on the books.  Then when they pay us, deposit it towards that loan.

Thanks for any input.

Kristin

Hello, 

Let me guide you through an easier process to organize financial records.

Yes, you're correct that you'll need to set up your neighbour as a customer .also you got it right to use an expense account for the utility item. Make sure to set up Other Income to the sales information item as well.

1. Go to Lists.
2. Select Item List.
3. Double-click the item and review the affected Income and Expense account.
4. Click ok to save the changes.

You mentioned you paid the utility expenses on your neighbour's behalf. To handle this, you can make this bill billable to the customer. make sure It is set up in the Preferneces. Then, you can create/edit the bill. Pay it afterwards.

Refer to the screenshot of Preferences and the screenshot of the bill with Billable checked. 

Once done, you can create an invoice for the customer and use the billable items. refer to screenshot:

Finally, receive payment once the neighbor pays.

For future help, I'll include this article to help you match your bank and credit card statements: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Desktop

If you have further questions about organizing your financial records in QBDT, you can comment below, and we'll respond to you as soon as possible.

@RRPIKW 

It's obvious from the responses you've received from QB employees, they don't know how to handle this and are sending you on a wild goose chase.  

The payments you receive from your neighbors are not income, they are a reduction in the receivable (asset) that they owe you.  There are a number of ways to handle this.  If you don't need to create invoices for your neighbors (maybe they just want a copy of the water bill?), use an Expense transaction (New > Expense).  When you receive and pay the water bill, enter an Expense transaction.  On line 1, enter your portion of the expense.  On lines 2 & 3, enter A/R as the Category, the amount due from each neighbor, and choose each neighbor under 'Customer' (you will need to set up each neighbor as a customer).  Each expense transaction will book your portion of the water expense and book the amount due from your neighbors as a receivable.  When you receive payment from your neighbors, receive payment as you would on any other invoice.  Ideally, you would use a bill transaction in QBO to record this, but QBO does not allow you to use A/R as a category on a bill.     

If you need to create invoices and bill your customers, let me know.  That's a bit more involved.    

@Rainflurry 

YES!!  lol  Felt like a wild goose chase.

I do need to bill the neighbor (only 1), and they want it every 3 months, even though WE pay it every month.  

Looking forward to your answer!  Thanks

@Rainflurry 

also, we're on Desktop version