How do I match those expenses on my AMEX.  I use that for all my reimbursable expense and then submit an expense report to the customer

I need to match my reimbursable expenses to my AMEX card which I connected to quickbooks.  I make all my purchases with that car, airfare, hotel, gas, etc.  I charge mileage for driving.  How do I code each CC purchase as a reimbursable expense?  I use the AMEX for other purchases as well which gets paid differently.

Good Afternoon, @Headruch. 

Thanks for joining in on this thread. The best way to code your credit card purchases as a reimbursable expense is by creating a bank rule. When you create a rule, it will automatically categorize the transactions for you. Here's how to create bank rules for downloaded transactions: 

1. Go to the Banking or Transactions tab on the left-hand menu bar. 
2. Pick the Rules section. 
3. Press New Rule. 
4. Type in a name for this rule. 
5. Choose all the correct information needed for a reimbursable expense. 
6. Once you're done, hit Save. 

It's that easy. If you'd like a more detailed guide about bank rules, check out this link. 

I'm only a post away if you have any other questions. Happy Friday!

Hi everyone I'm looking for a clear brain to answer this question....

Reim Exp purchased for a customer

I'm helping an older person to organize his estate by offering consulting services.  My invoices include 1 line under services for consulting at X hours for my labor.  However, I may have purchased a laptop for my customer and set it  up ready for him to do business.

Question

I purchased the laptop for 1000.00.  In the past I've always use a current asset account called "Reim Exp pass thru" to tag the expense in when posting my cc register in qbooks.  However, now i want to include it on a line item to my customer for 1000 with no markup but when i go to add it i cannot get to my current asset account to tag it as a pass thru.

I'M missing something somewhere in the exchange as what i've read shows listing the expense under reim income account and when doing the P&L it shows it as income and the expense still shows as an in expense so I do not want my reports to be wrong.....ugh.

I can guide you on how to fix this, @QMAN53.

As much as I want to look into further, however, I'm unable to open your account here for security purposes. In this case, I suggest contacting our support team. They have the tool to open your account and help you check your data. This is to make sure it will show the accurate information on your report. 

Here's how: 

1. Sign in to your QuickBooks Online company.
2. Go to the Help (?) menu at the top right.
3. Enter a brief description of your concern, and then select Let's talk.
4. Click Contact Us to connect with a live support agent.
5. Choose Start a chat or Get a callback to connect with us.

I'll be adding this to guide you with our support hours and types. 

Meanwhile, I'll be adding this Community resource if you've got other QuickBooks concerns such as setting up payments, managing your income and expenses, running reports, etc. Please refer to this article for more details: Community help articles.

Please leave a comment below if you have other concerns. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Have a wonderful day.

You should record the reimbursement as a revenue in your p&l. The expense you incurred out of pocket will be recorded as an expense and therefore the net effect is zero 

By "reimbursable" I presume you mean billable, as in you bill these expenses back to your customers, and your customers pay these bills to reimburse you for expenses you paid out on your customers behalf. 

The terminology should help you a bit with the answer.  Technically, a "reimbursable expense" usually describes an expense (like cleaning or office supplies) that an employee bought on behalf of an employer. A "billable expense" usually describes an expense that your company paid on behalf of your customer  (for job supplies and materials, for instance) that you charge the customer for. 

Therefore, to avoid confusion between these two types of expenses, I do NOT recommend that you call that expense account "Reimbursable Expenses". If you use Quickbooks payroll, and add the reimbursable expense category to types of pay for your employees, Quickbooks will get confused since it creates a payroll Reimbursable Expense account. Please call it "Billable Expenses" instead.

You *could* call it prepaid expenses, but the term "prepaid" in accounting usually refers  to an expense (like legal or insurance) that is paid for your OWN business in advance in increments, added to an intangible  asset, then deducted from the account when used.  (I hope this is not too confusing, I do have a degree in accounting.)

To give a more specific example, supposing an auto mechanic repairs your car. They charge not only for labor, but for parts. The parts in this case are a billable expense that they charge to their customers,  if it is a specialized part that they do not normally keep in their inventory.

In Quickbooks Online, for  every expense you enter, there is a checkbox that you can check off if this is an expense that you will bill to your customer, or receive payment from your customer for, as part of their service deal with you. 

This does NOT include inventory, since inventory is accounted for in a completely different way, and can be recorded and tracked inside or outside Quickbooks (if the business doesn't have Quickbooks Plus or Advanced (enterprise) online, it must be tracked outside Quickbooks, usually on a spreadsheet or using other apps).  Typically inventory is something you charge your customers for that you would always have a certain quantity of on hand (screws, nails, buttons, clothing, cans, bags).  

When you check off the billable expense box, you MUST enter the customer's name. This is the name of the customer that you will receive the money for the expense from. 

Next, you would create an invoice, adding the billable expense to it. 

Finally, when you receive payment from your customer for the expense, you record the customer's payment. 

Now regarding the Travel expenses. Travel expenses do need to be booked separately for tax purposes. (I have been a tax preparer for ten years, a bookkeeper for six years, and assisting clients with their payroll and bookkeeping for three years.) This includes lodging, food while on an overnight trip, and airfare or other travel tickets. Business meals with clients also need to be recorded separately, along with details of which client you met with and general purpose of the meeting (sales, etc).  

I have much of the same issue with a twist.

Our small rural homeowners’ association has 6 wells that are shared among 66 members.  Well electricity fees are collected annually and are recorded as income and expenses.  In addition, General Annual Assessments are collected for road repairs and administrative costs.

However, bills for individual well REPAIRS are sent directly to our bookkeeper for immediate payment to be reimbursed (hopefully) by shared well owners.  How is this shown in our Chart of Accounts and Income Statement?  Do we show this as Income and Expense?

While this is a well expense for our homeowners, it is not a well expense for the association.  Would this be an administrative expense?  How do we assign it in the Chart of Accounts? At the end of the year when we prepare our budget for member approval, we have 3 simple areas to report:  Road Expenses, Well Expenses (electricity) and Administrative Expenses.

Thanks for any input.

I found the following.  What are your thoughts? 

https://blog.tallie.com/quickbooks-desktop-manage-billable-expenses-using-service-items/           If you map bill or check line items to a Service Item rather than directly to an account, you can capture the cost and income more effectively and have the billable expenses appear in a clearer, more organized manner on an invoice.

Hi,

So I cannot record the reimbursed expense back to me, back against that specific expense account?

-ny

Hello. I got a question.

My customer gave me his sell permit number to avoid paying taxes. If I have to reimburse the taxes he paid me. How can I categorize that expense? 

I will appreciate your help (:

So, this is what I thought. And for example, I purchased some software for a client. I am also using QBO Plus. When the charge came in on my CC transactions, I naturally clicked the check mark that says that this cost is a billable expense and chose the right client for this expense. I tried using a normal expense category for the item and its tax that I paid - Office Expenses & Software; however, QBO Plus says I cannot use an expense account for those items, and I need to use an income account instead. So, should I create an income account called Customer Purchases or something similar? What an I missing here? I don't mark anything up and I do not have these items as inventory. They are basically things that I buy during a job since I may not have the client's credit card info and then I just directly bill them back to the client.

Thanks for your help.

T

Hi there, TIMORLANG.

Thank you for coming back to the QuickBooks Community, TIMORLANG. I'll be sharing details on how bank transactions work in QuickBooks. Then, troubleshooting steps to ensure you'll be able to categorize entries accurately.

The downloaded data in QuickBooks is dependent on the information shared by the financial institution. With this, once an expense entry appears on the banking page then it's a billable transaction and you'll assign it as an expense category, it should be saved without any error. Since you encountered an unusual message, I recommend logging in to your QuickBooks account using a private browser. This is to rule out the possibility of a webpage issue, and private browsing doesn't store local files or cache.

Use these keyboard shortcuts based on the browser you're using: 

• For Firefox or Microsoft Edge, press Ctrl + Shift + P.
• For Chrome, press Ctrl + Shift + N.
• For Safari, hold down Command + Shift + N.

If it works in incognito, you'll have to clear the cache of your regular browser. This removes the history or log of sites so you can start with a clean slate. You can check this article to see the steps: Clear cache and cookies to fix issues when using QuickBooks Online.

If the steps above didn't work, use another supported browser as alternatives.

Lastly, you may refer to this article to view steps on how you can reconcile your accounts so they always match your bank and credit card statements to avoid discrepancies: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online.

Stay in touch if you have any other concerns or additional questions about banking issues. I’ll be glad to help and answer them for you. Enjoy the rest of the day.

Thank you very much for the response. I am an IT consultant and fairly familiar with such issues. In this case, that is not what is happening. 

So, these transactions are not from a bank download. It is a very specific instance that happens only occasionally.

Normally, I make such purchases with my Business AMEX and am able to very easily make the downloaded transaction billable to a specific client. 

However, in this rare situation (that happens from time to time); I used my personal Credit Card / funds to buy something on behalf of a client. Those credit cards and funds are not connected to my QBO in anyway as they are all of a private and personal nature.

So, I have performed the following steps: 
1. I go into expenses and manually enter an expense that looks something like the attached screenshot.

2. I choose an account that I created as a Credit Card Account called Personal Funds (so that I remember to pay myself back for that and be reimbursed) 

3. I make the purchase billable to a client because ultimately, I need the client to pay me before I can reimburse the funds to myself

When I try to save it I get an error that the account is not associated to an income account. 

So, what kind of account should personal funds be? 

Or am I completely missing something and am being obtuse, do I need to enter this in some other fashion (maybe using the steps outlined in the article using the journal - but I do not see how that can be billed to a client).

Sorry, but I am just stuck and going in circles. 

Basically, what I need is a way to have a register so that I can pay myself for purchases with my personal funds; as well as, a way to bill those purchases to a client. Perhaps, I have to pay myself a reimbursement first  and bill that to the client? 

Sorry, I am lost. And perhaps I am making this more complicated than it should be. 

Hi!

The IRS now distinguishes between Travel Meals (which are 100% deductible) and Meals & Entertainment (50% deductible) for this reason. 

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/reports-and-accounting/how-do-i-setup-an-account-f...

Everyone on this thread: you need to search for 'pass thru expense' rather than 'reimbursable expense' and you find your answers. See linked article. Set up liability account. Map items (desktop) or products/services (online) to same liability account on both sides. 

Personally, I have set up separate sections in my items list. One set is for the pass thru items and the other set is for the "sold" items. I separated them by using sub categories. 

It took me a long time and lots of searching and agonizing to finally untangle this mess for one of my clients. Hope it helps someone. 

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/reports-and-accounting/how-do-i-setup-an-account-f...

Everyone on this thread: you need to search for 'pass thru expense' rather than 'reimbursable expense' and you find your answers. See linked article above. Set up liability account. Map items (desktop) or products/services (online) to same liability account on both sides. 

Personally, I have set up separate sections in my items list. One set is for the pass thru items and the other set is for the "sold" items. I separated them by using various sub categories based on business need.

It took me a long time and lots of searching and agonizing to finally untangle this mess for one of my clients. Hope it helps someone. 

You are not really supposed to do this since there would be no way to reconcile the account you just made up that pays yourself, and frankly from an IRS standpoint it doesn't look good. When using a reimbursement form, you A) must being paying yourself payroll and paying the payroll taxes that go with this and B) have reimbursable expense set up in your payroll set up wizard. QB actually makes this fairly easy (when you set it up right the first time)... going back in and trying to fix it later can sometimes cause problems. Also, C) you should technically be having someone else who is not you (or your relative, etc.) verifying reimbursement checks to you.

If you are the owner of the business, you should follow these steps in the support article below based on your situation:

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/reports-and-accounting/how-do-i-reimburse-myself-f...

This is the best answer on this thread. Thank you! My question now has to do with the travel expense and how to record that. My client is only in the travel industry. He's a contract pilot. So everything he does is a travel expense that is then reimbursed through the company along with a paycheck. How should I go about recording the travel expenses differently?

So , I have been entering expenses for products for my clients  on the invoices  along with management fees.
. If I’m understanding, I have to enter the expenses twice . Once as a billable expense and once on the invoice so I can track the expenses against the income . Correct ?

Hello, KaymeaSedona. 

Let me assist you with billable expenses into an invoice. A billable expense is a cost you incur on your customer’s behalf when you conduct work for them. You can record and track billable expenses so your customer can reimburse them when they receive their invoice. That said, once you create an expense, you can add or link the billable expense to your customer's invoice. Here's how:

 Enter a billable expense.

Here’s how to bill a customer for an expense. 

1. Click+ New.
2. Select the transaction (Bill, Expense, or Check) you want to create.
3. Enter the payee.
4. In the Category column, tap the expense account for transaction.
5. Enter the description and amount of the expense, then hit the Billable checkbox.
6. In the Customer column, click the customer you want to bill for this expense.
7. (Optional) Enter or make sure the markup % is correct, then select the Tax checkbox or choose a tax agency if you want to charge tax.
8. Hit Save and close.

Add billable expenses to invoices.

To reimburse the cost, link the billable expense to your customer's invoice: 

1. Press + New.
2. Click Invoice. 
3. In the Customer dropdown menu, hit the customer you created a billable expense for. This opens the Add to invoice window.
4. Choose Add on the billable expense you want to charge to your customer.
5. Tap Save and close.

Let me also share a couple more articles for additional guidance and reference when using this feature: 

• What are pay rates, cost rates, and billable rates? 
• Invoice customers for project expenses 

You can always reach us for more concerns and clarification on QuickBooks. Have a fantastic week. Take care!

Thank you!!!  🙏💕😊

Unfortunately, I don't have a billable checkbox. Is there somewhere I can turn this feature on? 

Hi there, KaymeaSedona.

I can show you how to turn on billable expenses in QuickBooks Online.

You can turn on billable expense tracking by going to the Account and Settings.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Gear icon, then select Account and settings.
2. Go to the Expenses tab.
3. From the Bills and expenses section, select Edit ✎.
4. Turn on the following:
   • Show Items table on expense and purchase forms
   • Track expenses and items by the customer.
   • Make expenses and items billable.
5. (Optional) Set up the following:
   • Markup rate
   • Billable expense tracking
   • Sales tax charge
6. Bill payment terms.
7. Select Save.

You might want to review all your sales transactions made in QuickBooks Online. You can go to the Sales menu and select All Sales.

Please let me know if you need clarification about the billable expenses. Have a great day.