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Tom208
Level 2

Customer invoice at question

Is it possible in QBs Online to bill a tenant for sublease (rent) income and then customize that income to be applied against rental expense- so that  the rental income reduces your rental expense. 
I am being billed $11k for rent by my landlord, and billing my subtenant $11k and I would like my rent expense in my P&L to be zero?

thanks in advance for any help..

2 Comments 2
Erika_K
QuickBooks Team

Customer invoice at question

Hi there, Tom. I'm here to ensure you can record the tenant's sublease.

 

In QuickBooks Online (QBO), we can bill a tenant for sublease income and customize it to apply it against the rental expense. This way, the rental income reduces the rental expense. To accomplish this, we can create an expense account and a sub-account first.

 

Here's how: 

 

  1. Go to Chart of accounts and choose the green New button. 
  2. Key in the information and hit Save

 

To create a sub-account, we can:  

 

  1. Follow the same process. 
  2. From the Save account under the dropdown list, select the expense account you created.  
  3. Enter the information and click Save

 

Second, we create a check or expense to record the rent issued by your landlord, affecting the expense account. Let me show you how:

 

  1. Create a Check or Expense
  2. From the Payee field, select your landlord. 
  3. On the Category dropdown menu, choose the primary expense account. 
  4. Fill out the relevant information and select Save and close

 

Third, we can bill your tenant by generating an Invoice and selecting the service item specific to the sublease. 

 

To create a service item affecting the expense account, perform the outlined steps: 

 

  1. Go to the Sales menu and choose Product and service
  2. Select Service as an Item type
  3. Key in the necessary information 
  4. On the Income account section, select the expense sub-account you created. 
  5. Click Create new

 

Then, we create the Invoice. Here's how: 

 

  1. Locate the Invoice window. 
  2. Choose your tenant from the Customer dropdown menu. 
  3. Select the service item and fill out the missing information. 
  4. Hit Save

 

Afterward, you can pull up the Profit and Loss report to generate your transactions and provide a snapshot of your tenant's sublease. I'll add an image for visual reference. 

 

Moreover, I've included these articles about managing your reports in QBO:  

 

 

Keep me posted if you have additional questions about managing your customer invoices in QBO. Keep safe always!

IamJasonWeber
Level 3

Customer invoice at question

Hi @Tom208, responding to your question... If you simply wish to avoid this rental activity (both payments from tenant and payouts to landlord) from showing up on your P&L, you can simply use liability accounts to track each. This way, the movement is reflected in your balance sheet and can be shown with a transaction report instead of affecting your P&L, all while being able to track the activity. In this case, you are neither tracking this as income or expense. Based on your original question, it seems this might be a solution to consider. 

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