As a self employed business owner how would you input and categorize a purchase you made for your company if you don't have your personel bank account linked to quickbook

Hello, larry-ldhotshot-.

Inputting and categorizing transactions in QuickBooks Self-Employed or the Online version is pretty easy to do. More than happy to show you how to do this in both programs. 

In QuickBooks Self-Employed, enter the transaction manually and categorize it as an expense for your business. The category depends on how the purchase was made and what it is for (whether it's for rent, fees, meals, etc.).

QBSE follows the Schedule C categories. If you need a detailed guide about them, check out this article: Schedule C and expense categories in QuickBooks Self-Employed.

To record a transaction manually: 

1. Go to the Transactions menu.
2. Click the Add transaction button.
3. Under the Transactions table, enter the details of the purchase, date and amount. 
4. Click the Category link and select the appropriate Schedule C category.
5. Once done, click Save. 

More helpful details can be found here: Manually add transactions in QuickBooks Self-Employed.

If you're using QuickBooks Online, you would record the transaction as a bill, expense or a check depending on how the purchase was made. The general rule of the thumb is to follow what happened in real life. 

Open this link if you'd like to know how to enter expense transactions in QBO: Enter, edit, or delete expenses in QuickBooks Online.

To categorize the transaction in QBO, you'll want to select the accounts you've set up in your Chart of Accounts. I'd recommend reaching out to an accountant when doing this however. They'll ensure your purchases are categorized properly and make sure your books are accurate. 

It's not needed to connect your bank account in both programs. However, it would make the recording process a lot more easier and convenient. If you want to reconsider connecting it, check out these articles for more details: 

• Connect bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks Self-Employed
• Connect bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks Online

Need help with any other tasks in QuickBooks Online or in the Self-Employed version? Our articles might be able to point you in the right direction. Click here to go to our general help page with articles. If you want to switch between products, select another program under the Topics for section. 

Just leave your reply in this thread if you have other questions for QBSE or QBO. I'm more than willing to help you out again. Take care out there.