other business expenses

Managing transactions is very crucial to keep the account in order, @Its Mel. I'll explain how this works in QuickBooks Self-Employed for you to do it properly.

Categorizing transactions in QBSE is done manually. I recommend opening the transaction and changing the category to the right one. I can show you how.

For manually added transactions:

1. Open the Transactions menu.

2. Locate the transactions you want to change the category to.

3. Click on the category hyperlink.

4. Search for the account you want to add to the transaction then select it.

Otherwise, follow this if you're working on downloaded transactions:

1. Open the Transactions menu.

2. Locate the transactions you want to change the category to.

3. Select if the transactions are either Business, Personal, or Split.

4. Search for the account you want to add to the transaction then select it. (Applicable for both Business and Personal)

5. For Split, fill out other information needed then click on Save.

Learn more about handling transactions through the following articles.

• Schedule C and expense categories in QuickBooks Self-Employed
• Categorize transactions in QuickBooks Self-Employed

If your categorization is correct and the issue persists, you're likely experiencing a browser-related issue. I suggest performing some basic troubleshooting steps to rule this out. Start by logging in to your QBSE company using an incognito page. See these shortcut keys to open it:

• Ctrl + Shift + N  for Google Chrome
• Ctrl + Shift + P for Firefox
• Control + Option +P if you're using Safari
• Ctrl + Shift + P for Microsoft Edge

If this works, then you'll have to clear your regular browser cache. If not, use other compatible browsers.

Please let us know if this goes so we can offer extra assistance with banking or QuickBooks. Keep safe always!

My problem is that I categorize them and then when I do reports, several categories are lumped into the “other business expenses” category, then I have $30k of stuff I need to explain. I need my cell phone bill total. I need subscriptions. My tax lady asks these things and I’m always taken off guard because I can’t tell her a direct answer because QB just went ahead and slapped it all in the same pile and I have no way of separating it all

back out.  I also can’t figure out how to itemize my Traditional and Roth IRA contributions, it’s frustrating and I’m

wondering if I should try another software.

This isn't the kind of situation we want you to experience, Its Mel.

I checked our records, and there is no record of this case. We appreciate you carrying out my colleague's troubleshooting solutions. Because none of them are working on your end, I'd recommend contacting our Customer Support Team. They'll access your account in a secure environment and look into what's causing this problem. Let me show you how:

1. Go to the Assistant menu.
2. Type in Talk to a human in the Type something... field (twice).
3. Select the I still need a human option.
4. Choose either Message an agent or Get a callback.

You can check the support hours to contact them with ease. When everything is all set, you may also want to check out one of our Help pages as your reference to guide you in managing your account and business's growth and transactions using QuickBooks: Learn and Support. It includes QuickBooks help articles, Community discussions with other users, and video tutorials, to name a few.

Feel free to get back to me here in the Community space if you have any additional QuickBooks-related concerns. It'll be my pleasure to cater to them again. Stay safe, and have a nice day!

Yep, I got that far as well, but unfortunately the hours offered were not right then, the time I had to mess with it. My work schedule is pretty busy so I actually sent an email. Perhaps on my next day off I will be able to call. 
I seriously think that the things I’m asking are not possible, as everything I’m seeing describes it all like it’s perfectly acceptable for things to get thrown in the “other business expenses” pile.

I’ve had this issue since 2016 when I started with Quickbooks Pro and it’s caused confusion every year. My old tax lady would actually yell at me

for using such an ambiguous descriptor for so many transactions and I’d get so confused! 

Perhaps a phone call would be best, it seems that no one is understanding what I’m saying. I know how to categorize things. I never once choose “other business expenses”, yet when I do my year end tax stuff, many of the specific categories I use have been lumped by your software into one category- the “other business expenses” one. I need that to stop, because my accountant needs information from the specific categories that are being lumped into one pile. 

No one seems to be understanding that I am categorizing things properly. I never choose “other business expenses”. It’s like OBE is a big box sitting off to the side. I put my transactions in other smaller boxes to keep them divided out and when it’s tax time, I find that your software has taken ten of my boxes and dumped them into the big OBE box and then closed it and taped it shut. 
I need the things to stay categorized as I have put them so that my accountant knows how the little boxes (categories) were. 
Not only is this very inconvenient, but I can’t seem to figure out how to see what’s in the OBE box to try to separate them out on a sheet of paper so I can give her the information when she asks. 
This has been going on for several years and it is very frustrating. 

I have some information that I want to share so you'll be guided on what you're going to do, Its Mel.

Once you categorize transactions, QuickBooks puts them on the correct line of your Schedule C. This organizes your income and expenses so you'll know the most significant impact on the areas of your self-employed business. 

I can see the importance of being able to categorize transactions properly, other than choosing other business expenses. You'll want to send feedback to let our product team know how this feature helps your business. To do so, you can follow the steps outlined below:

1. In Self-Employed, click the Assistant icon.
2. In the chat box, type "send feedback."
3. Select Add a feature.
4. When asked, type your concern.
5. Enter your request, then click Yes.

In addition, you may need to pay self-employment taxes so you'll know what to pay each quarter. Learn from this article for your reference: Pay Federal Estimated Quarterly Taxes In QuickBooks Self-Employed. 

Please keep in touch if you have additional questions when categorizing transactions. I'll always be right here if you need help. Have a great day ahead!

I am sorry you're not getting the answer that you need.

On the left-hand side, under the Accounting tab. Find Chart of Accounts. Locate the OBE account. Then select Run Report located on the right side. When It populates Scroll to the top and make sure the dates are correct. Then select Group By and in the drop-down box choose ACCOUNT. 

Then re-run the report

This should break down the OBE account to each of your categorized accounts. 

OBE is a main account and the others are Sub - Accounts. This is why when you run a  business report these accounts "lump all together"

I hope that helps.

I sent you a reply I hope you got it. 

Its Mel,

I've just reached a point in my business journey where this has become a major inconvenience between me and my CPAl too. From what I am gathering, upgrading away from QBSE to QB Online will offer a more robust reporting system which "should" keep those various transactions from being caught under the "other business expenses" umbrella and instead marked as their own unique category (small tools, subscriptions, etc.). I am curious if you found a way to resolve this issue yet. Did you upgrade from QBSE to something like QB Online?