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janetandler
Level 1

Personal vs. Business vs. Nonprofit

I'm helping a friend with their books, and they've been using their business and personal cards/accounts fairly interchangeably. To complicate matters further, they have a business (run out of a home office), and they're a landlord (so they have deductible expenses for home maintenance), plus they're starting a nonprofit (run on their property). I could use some advice on 1. how many business accounts to create in quickbooks, 2. the best way to disentangle personal from business expenses (from landlord expenses) - do I disconnect all personal cards and then manually add business expenses from those personal cards? 

 

Any guidance is appreciated! 

2 Comments 2
MariaSoledadG
QuickBooks Team

Personal vs. Business vs. Nonprofit

I have another way how you to record personal and business expenses, janetandler.

 

Generally, we don't recommend mixing business and personal funds. However, we know this happens sometimes. You can record it as cheque or an expense when reimbursing personal expenses. Here's how:

 

Step 1: Record the business expense you paid for with personal funds

  1. Select + New.
  2. Select Journal Entry.
  3. On the first line, select the expense account for the purchase.
  4. Enter the purchase amount in the Debits column.
  5. On the second line, select Partner's equity or Owner's equity.
  6. Enter the same purchase amount in the Credits column.
  7. Select Save and close.

 

Step 2: Decide how you want to reimburse the money

For the reimbursement, you have two options.

Option 1: Record the reimbursement as a cheque

  • Select + New.
  • Select Cheque. Or if you're in the Business view, follow the steps to switch to Accountant view first. Then come back to these steps.
  • Select a bank account to use to reimburse the personal funds.
  • In the Category column, select Partner's equity or Owner's equity.
  • Enter the amount to reimburse.
  • Select Save and close or Save and new.

 

Option 2: Record the reimbursement as an expense

  1. Select + New.
  2. Select Expense.
  3. Select a bank account to use to reimburse the personal funds.
  4. In the Category column, select Partner's equity or Owner's equity.
  5. Enter the amount of the reimbursement.
  6. Select Save and close.

 

Also, if you're referring to how many accounts you can connect with QuickBooks Online (QBO), you can connect as many business and personal accounts as you want. Aside from that, to separate records within QuickBooks, during bookkeeping you need to book them in separate expense accounts. For example, for personal expenses, you may use the other expenses category which moves the expenses to a separate area on the profit and loss reports. 

 

QuickBooks offers a variety of reports that caters to your business need. Learn how to customize them to get the information you need. Customise Reports In QuickBooks Online.

 

Let me know if you have any questions about personal and business accounts in QuickBooks. I'll be here to help.

Fiat Lux - ASIA
Level 15

Personal vs. Business vs. Nonprofit

@janetandler 

If you want to save costs at the risk of messing up your books at any point, you can take advantage of the Locations>Business feature available on QBO Plus. Otherwise, you will have to manage 3 separate QBO accounts.

https://quickbooks.grsm.io/EU