Hi! I often read recommendations to NOT use journal entry as much as possible when making adjustments in Quickbooks. However, I find myself using it for the following instances:
1. Recording portion of prepaid expenses in the month they are incurred. (Prepaid expenses are recorded using Vendors > Expense and matched to appropriate bank transaction but the amortization of prepaid expense is made through a journal entry because if I amortize it using expense, there is no bank transaction to match it to)
2. Accrual of salaries or other expenses (I find it easier to use journal entry function since I can simply reverse it the following month when the expense is actually paid. Using a Bill automatically books Dr Expense Cr Accounts Payable but I do have specific payable account for certain expenses like Accrued Salaries, Accrued Printing Cost, Accrued Shipping Cost which I can immediately see when looking heading to Balance Sheet without the need of digging into A/P)
3. Customer Deposits (While I have read recommendations on how to properly record customer deposits, I don't think it suits our business. Our invoices are automated from Salesforce, it is triggered by adding a date when our product is approved for printing by the customers. We try our best to match Salesforce to Quickbooks so I do not edit anything in the invoice, especially when it's been paid by the customer. Another reason is that, there are a couple of times a customer requests to move delivery of product to a later date, sometimes months after but the invoice in Salesforce (as well as Quickbooks) is dated with the original date the invoice was created. I have to remove such from the P&L Statement and move it to the correct month when revenue is actually earned. I find it convenient to use JE to remove the revenue from the month when invoice was created and reverse the same JE to book it to the correct month when revenue is actually earned.)
My questions are:
- Would the above instances exempt me from the recommendations of NOT using Journal Entry?
- Do you have any recommendations on how I can make the adjustments/accruals/deferrals if I do not use Journal entry function?
Thanks in advance! Happy Holidays!
