Which budget year absorbs a previous year expense billed this year?

Hello there, @SVOhio.

Let me sort things out for you. A transaction entered in QuickBooks will be applied to the year's budget depending on the date of the transaction. Since the purchase order was made a year before, it must show to the previous year's budget. 

The possible reason that QuickBooks applies the transaction to the current year's budget is that the date entered is incorrect. Let me guide you through the process of entering the bill in QuickBooks Desktop.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Vendors tab.
2. Choose Enter Bills.
3. Select the name of the vendor with the purchase order.
4. An Open POs Exist window will pop up, you need to click Yes.
5. An Open Purchase Ordes window will show, you'll need to put a checkmark beside the transaction, then click OK.
6. Check the date if it shows a year before. 
7. Once done, click Save and Close.

You can plan and make smart business decisions by creating a budget in QuickBooks Desktop:

Please let me know if you have other concerns. I'd be glad to assist you as soon as I can. Have a blissful day.

Thanks for the quick response. I'm an appointed church treasurer with no accounting experience, they just needed someone and I said yes. So that is the first mistake - no experience. I think my problem must be I have to create purchase orders for the billings of such items. Right now, people just bring me an invoice of purchases they made previously. So when I enter bills, which the previous treasurer did not do, I have associated them to any POs because I hadn't created any. I may need a bit of coaching how I should properly correct this, which may be an article in QB somewhere.

So, last question, do I need to do the same with utilities: electric, gas, internet, insurance, etc.

Thanks for the help.

Yes, you also need to create a bill with each of the church's utilities (electric, gas, internet, and insurance), SVOhio. This way, you'll be able to manage the expenses and keep the books updated.

QuickBooks Desktop lets you record your payables using the Enter Bills feature. Entering bills is part of your usual A/P workflow. You can refer to the steps provided by my colleague Rubielyn_J above. You'll have to repeat the process until you recorded all your transactions.

After recording, you can use Pay Bills to settle your payables or close the bill you entered. Let me guide you how.

1. Go to the Vendors menu.
2. Select Pay Bills.
3. Choose the bills you want to pay by marking the checkbox from the checked column.
4. Select the payment date and method.
5. Click Pay Selected Bills.
6. Select Done in the Payment Summary window.

I've attached screenshots below for your reference.

Entering and paying bills is part of the A/P workflow in QuickBooks Desktop. To view the  complete list of workflows and other vendor-related transactions, kindly refer to this article: Accounts Payable workflows.

Furthermore, QuickBooks offers a variety of reports that tells where the company stands. You can pull up the Profit and Loss report so you can find out how the church is doing financially. To learn more about the available reports that you can access through the Reports menu, you can check out this article: Understand reports.

Please let me know if you have other concerns. I'm just around to help.

Rea_M and Rubielyn_J:

Thanks for the quick replies. So you understand what I know and where I may be weak and may help:

I do watch the P&L and that is how I noticed a previous year's expense was applied to current year's budget instead of the previous. Gift cards would be a good example. We purchased $400.00 in gift cards in Dec 2019 using a Visa, and paid the Visa bill reflecting those in Jan 2020. When I paid the Visa, it had multiple items on it besides the 4 - $100.00 gift cards.

Based on Rubielyn_J's suggestion, I created a PO with Walmart as the Vendor and dated Dec 2019, and found the bill entered in and paid in Jan 2020. It applied the PO but it did not disappear from the 2020 Budget for Benevolence. I expected it to be $400 less, but it still showed. So I'm not sure what I may be missing?

I think once I understand, I may be able to make adjustments at least for the expenses that carried over from 2019 to 2020 since those are minimal, then begin to create PO for anything new from this time forward to make sure this year's expenses that may be purchased late 2020 and paid on 2021 are applied to the 2020 budget. 

Good morning, @SVOhio.

I appreciate you taking the time to explain everything so well, also for taking the time to work through the suggestions made. 

Since your budget still isn't coming out correctly, I recommend reaching out to an accountant so they can look into the underlying issue. They can also make suggestions on how to resolve it. If you don't have an accountant, don't sweat it! You can find one here in our Resource Center. 

Please let me know if you have further questions or concerns. You can reach out to us here in the Community anytime you need a helping hand. Take care! 

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Hi,

I think I have the same question. I am the treasurer for the school PTA and we have the same issue where we receive reimbursements for purchases from the recently completed fiscal year. So for example, for an event that occurred in April, I received a reimbursement request in August. I would like the reimbursement to be reflected in the prior year budget but because the payment was made in the current fiscal year, it is reflected in the current budget. Is there a way in QuickBooks to designate what year the transaction should be reflected in the budget or does the budget simply reflect the transaction date on the transaction. Thank you.

Brian