How do I record a General Journal entry? I returned a tenant's partial cleaning deposit and I need to sweep the remainder into the rental incom account.

Cleaning deposits are a long term liability. Current liabilities are what is due in a month and short term liabilities are what is due in less than a year. Since cleaning deposits can be something due in 10 years, yes I have tenants that have been with me that long, they are considered long term liabilities, at least that was what I was taught when I studied accounting and how I was told to set them up. I don't know if that makes a difference, but that is how I have them set up.

First, do I create an invoice and pay the invoice or just write a check? When I tried to just write a check, it wouldn't let me enter my check number. I already have printed checks from my bank I use. I don't use QB checks and don't want to print a check. QB only allowed me to defer printing.

Second, what account do I enter a negative number to, my income account or the cleaning deposit account? I'm sorry, for me that makes no sense. Liability accounts are Credit accounts as are income accounts. For me I need to Debit the cleaning deposit account and Credit the rental income account. Why can't I just do that?

I've used other accounting programs and QB is counter intuitive to me.

I don't know what QB was doing, but at first your suggestion didn't work like you said it would, so I closed out QB and restarted it, then your suggestion worked, so I'm going to give you credit for solving my issue.

That still doesn't resolve why QB doesn't just allow you to do a journal entry. It would be so much easier for someone who has never used QB, like myself, to figure out how to do it.

Thank you for the response, @neyerbj.

In QuickBooks Desktop, current liabilities are debts your company expects to pay within a year. The long-term liabilities are those amounts that you’ll pay off in more than one year.

For property managers, we suggest that you use billing statements rather than invoices because they are better suited for the periodic billing.

It will also be best to consult an accountant to get advice on what account to use.

Check the following article for more information on how to track your income and expenses with your property management: Create a property management company.

We’re always here if you still need help in recording your transactions. 

Billing Statements? How do you do that? On the Home Menu I can select bills. It has arrows pointing toward Creating Invoices and Pay Bills, but when selected I can't enter any bill for a tenant.

Thanks for the link to setting up a management company. I'm definitely going to examine it. I manage my own rental houses and I used the default set up that came with QB, but I had to modify it significantly to get it to work how I needed. 

I have used several different accounting programs, and QB advertises itself as easy, but I've found it anything but. One of the major changes QB needs to make is to have a General Journal and General Ledger. I have built so many reports using these to see what was actually going on in my business. 

Thanks for getting back to us, neyerbj.

Journal entries are the last resort for entering transactions. You will use them only if you're following the advice of an accountant. 

You can also look for an account near your place if you need one through this link https://quickbooks.intuit.com/find-an-accountant/. It will help you find a ProAdvisor that is a QuickBooks-certified accountant who will provide strategic insights to run your business.

On the other hand, a billing statement is a summary of your customer's account, listing recent invoices, credits memos, and payments. You will create and sent it to show how much customers owe you. Feel free to read through this article, Create a billing statement for the detailed steps.

Don't hesitate to hit the Reply button if there's anything else you need. I'm always around to help ensure your success.

I'm sorry, but how I was trained in accounting you always used a journal entry to move funds between accounts. Actually, if you made an error in one transaction, you corrected it with a journal entry. Behind the scenes, the accounting program is making a journal entry anyway. Why we are warned off of it is beyond me. The General Ledger should show that transaction so it is traceable. 

During this issue, I actually entered the check two different ways and it wasn't till I tried entering everything as directed above that I discovered I'd accidently entered it another way. I discovered this when I tried to print the check, just to get rid of the pending issue as I have preprinted checks I need to use first, and the number was used. I just deleted the previous entry and QB warned me, but let me do it anyway. If I can do that, I should be allowed to do journal entries. 

By the way, the program automatically checks the print box. When unchecked and you click save, it prompts for the check number. Why doesn't QB simply put that on the main screen? A neophyte like me, doesn't know how things are supposed to work and wouldn't know that they'd be prompted for the check number. Instead I spent a lot of time trying to figure out where I was suppose to put the check number. Everything should be on the main screen as that makes it easier to figure out.

Just to let you know, the video doesn't apply to my version of QB. I have QB Desktop Plus. There isn't an Create tab, rather it is under Company > Make Journal Entries. So if anyone reads this with the same issue, they'll know it could be different for their version of QB.

Thanks for the quick response, @neyerbj.

My colleague already updated her answer above and provide you the correct link on how to create a billing statement in QuickBooks Desktop. 

When it comes to entering your custom check numbers, that option is available on the main screen. Here’s a screenshot on where to add the transaction number:

QuickBooks also follows the sticky feature, wherein the system uses the last option selected when recording a transaction. That is the reason why the program automatically marks the Print box. 

Please let me know if you have additional concerns. I’m here to provide answers. Take care!