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About this lesson

In this lesson, we cover how to record expenses, checks written by hand, and printing checks.

Quick reference

Manually entering expenses

This lesson will show you how to manually enter expenses.

When to use

Generally speaking, you're only going to use this when you are recording checks you've written (or want to print out) but otherwise you're more likely to connect your bank and let the data download into QuickBooks. This is useful to know for time rare occasions that technology has a hiccup and an expense doesn't download. 

Instructions

There are a few ways to go about getting to the manual expense entry page, I'm going to show you my favorite way.

  1. Click on the + New icon in the upper left hand corner 
  2. To record an expense that was paid using a check
    1. Under the second column (titled vendors), click on check
    2. Fill in the payee
    3. Select the bank account associated with the check
    4. Enter the payment date
    5. Enter the check number (if you handwrote the check, otherwise check the box for print later)
    6. On line #1, click the blank box under category and then select the appropriate category from the chart of accounts
    7. Add a description or memo if desired
    8. Enter an amount 
    9. If you need to print this check onto check paper, click Print Check in the gray bar on the bottom of the screen
    10. In the lower right corner, select either save and close or save and new depending on what you need to do next
  3. To record an expense that was paid not using a check
    1. Under the second column (titled vendors), click on expense
    2. Fill in the payee
    3. Select the payment account associated with the payment method
    4. Enter the payment date
    5. Optional: select the payment method (this is only for you, it doesn't impact the accounting)
    6. Enter the reference number, if applicable 
    7. On line #1, click the blank box under category and then select the appropriate category from the chart of accounts
    8. Add a description or memo if desired
    9. Enter an amount 
    10. In the lower right corner, select either save and close or save and new depending on what you need to do next

Hints & tips

  • The form called check and the form called expense are nearly identical and can in some cases be used interchangeably. The check form is for printing checks and logging a check number. The check form only allows you to indicate which BANK account the money came from, it does not allow you to choose a credit card account.
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  • 00:02 In this lesson, I want to show you how to add expenses manually.
  • 00:09 I'm definitely going to show you how to add expenses by downloading them
  • 00:12 from the bank.
  • 00:13 But I think there's real value in knowing how to add them by hand.
  • 00:18 In the upper left hand corner, we're going to click on the plus sign.
  • 00:21 The plus sign is the place we go to make actions to do things.
  • 00:25 So I'm going to click on the + New.
  • 00:28 And then what I want to do is add an expense.
  • 00:30 So I'm going to pick Expense under the column of vendors.
  • 00:36 The first thing I need to do when I fill in the expense form
  • 00:39 is indicate who I paid.
  • 00:41 So I've given money to somebody who have I given the money to.
  • 00:44 I'm going to click the drop down list and
  • 00:46 then I'm going to say, I've given money to amazing armchairs.
  • 00:51 To do this, I used my Alaska Airlines Credit Card.
  • 00:55 This happened on today's date, down below where it says payment method.
  • 00:59 This is kind of silly because I've already set up at the top, but
  • 01:02 I'm just going to pick Credit Card.
  • 01:05 It doesn't matter what you put for the payment method.
  • 01:07 You're not going to see it showing up on your reports,
  • 01:10 so you're not going to search by it.
  • 01:12 The reference number is if I wanted to put in a reference number.
  • 01:16 So maybe I put it in the receipt number.
  • 01:19 I generally don't put a reference number in.
  • 01:21 Down below when it says category says, what tax cut category fits?
  • 01:25 I don't want you to stress about the text category.
  • 01:27 I want you to think on my chart of accounts,
  • 01:30 which expense account makes the most sense for what I'm doing.
  • 01:34 And if I don't have an account, I can always add an account.
  • 01:37 I'm going to click the drop down, and I'm going to look for
  • 01:40 something that's along the lines of an office expense.
  • 01:43 So I'm just going to scroll.
  • 01:45 I'm watching the right-hand side, I know the one I'm looking for is an Expense.
  • 01:50 So when the italicized text on the right-hand side of my drop down to say
  • 01:53 expenses.
  • 01:54 So I'm scrolling down and scrolling, and here we go, Office Supplies.
  • 02:00 I think that's perfect.
  • 02:02 Description, what did I pay for?
  • 02:05 I'm going to say, I paid for a chair, and
  • 02:07 we will say that this chair was 599.00, it's a nice chair.
  • 02:12 I'm going to come down here again for Office Supplies, and
  • 02:15 I'm going to say 2nd chair, and we're also going to call this one 599.00.
  • 02:19 I want you to see what it looks like to use two descriptions.
  • 02:23 I could certainly put them both in one, and say, chair and 2nd chair,
  • 02:28 or I can make them two different lines.
  • 02:31 Both of them for Office Supplies, boht them for chair, both for
  • 02:34 the same price each.
  • 02:35 It's entirely up to you, how much detail you want in your QuickBooks.
  • 02:40 I'm going to scroll down,
  • 02:41 I don't have a receipt to add because it's all make believe.
  • 02:45 But if I did, I can attach the receipt here if I wanted to.
  • 02:50 I could also use this memo line instead of the description if I want it.
  • 02:55 So here I have it, Office Chairs paid for off the Credit Card, Save and Close.
  • 03:03 I want to show you a different example.
  • 03:05 I want to show you how to take care of this if you're writing a check.
  • 03:09 So I'm going to click on the plus sign for New into the vendors column.
  • 03:12 I'm going to go down to Check.
  • 03:15 When I click on Check, my account options are only the bank accounts.
  • 03:20 So in this case, my checking on my Petty Cash.
  • 03:23 But my Alaska Airlines is not an option.
  • 03:26 Let me see what else I buy.
  • 03:29 Let's go Kind Kars.
  • 03:30 So let's pretend that we bought a car for cash, by cash, I mean check.
  • 03:36 So Kind Kars, Kind Kars is on my list, which is great today.
  • 03:42 I'm going to say even though it says check number 1, I'm going to be like, no,
  • 03:46 no that was checked number 11,001, and the category.
  • 03:50 What am I buying?
  • 03:52 When I click the drop down a moment ago I was thinking about my expenses.
  • 03:56 But this time I'm not thinking in my expenses, I'm buying a car.
  • 03:59 So, I'm going to click, Add new because I'm buying the car for the first time.
  • 04:04 I know that I don't have it in my charge of accounts.
  • 04:07 So, Add new, changed my account time to Fixed Asset.
  • 04:12 And I'll say, speedy car #3.
  • 04:19 So you're going to get better descriptions to your vehicles if you buy vehicles.
  • 04:22 So you'll get better descriptions on your chart of accounts.
  • 04:25 I'm just having a little bit of fun with this,
  • 04:26 because we're racecar school and we can.
  • 04:29 So I'm going to say, Save and Close.
  • 04:31 For description, I might put in something like the year.
  • 04:34 So it's a 2020 Red Race Car with stripe.
  • 04:41 Clearly, I don't drive race cars.
  • 04:42 And I will say that I bought it for $10,000 because it was on sale.
  • 04:47 I've indicated my check number.
  • 04:48 So this is how I'm going to log it if I'm writing a check.
  • 04:52 I'm going to say Save and Close.
  • 04:55 The only difference between choosing expense which is this.
  • 04:59 And choosing check is expense gives you all of these options in your drop down for
  • 05:03 where did the money come from.
  • 05:06 And over to the right, it says reference number.
  • 05:09 When you look at it for
  • 05:11 check the only options I have my drop down our bank accounts.
  • 05:16 I don't have reference number instead of his place for check number.
  • 05:19 And then this box for print later, or
  • 05:21 the bottom I can click on the words print check.
  • 05:25 It's two routes to the same place.
  • 05:27 All right, let me show you one more example, because I think this is nice.
  • 05:33 Let's see here, what else do we buy?
  • 05:38 Plucky Paper Company, I know that we don't have them in our list.
  • 05:42 Which is a perfect segue to show you how to add a vendor to your vendor list
  • 05:46 without going through the steps I showed you earlier.
  • 05:50 So when I look at my payees, I'm like, I don't have Plucky Paper.
  • 05:54 So I can just paste it, or I could type it by hand.
  • 05:58 When I add something here that doesn't show up on my list,
  • 06:01 a little menu pop out will appear at the bottom.
  • 06:04 And it says, Add and then the name of what you've just typed.
  • 06:08 So I'm going to click on Add, and wait for the pop up.
  • 06:12 My options here for type is either vendor someone we give money to.
  • 06:17 A customer, somebody who gives us money, or an employee, a member of our team.
  • 06:22 So this is a vendor we're buying paper.
  • 06:26 So click Save, payment account, we'll pretend this command checking.
  • 06:32 Let's see here, let's pretend that we use the Debit Card.
  • 06:35 Debit Cards not on the list, I'm going to add it.
  • 06:37 So Debit Card, there's no reference number.
  • 06:41 And then the category is Office Supplies.
  • 06:46 I just typed in the word office because I don't want to scroll down,
  • 06:49 you can kind of find your rhythm.
  • 06:50 Are you more inclined to type or more inclined to scroll?
  • 06:53 It's two routes to the same place.
  • 06:55 So Office Supplies, I don't need a description, I know exactly what I bought.
  • 07:00 That over to the right, how much should I spend?
  • 07:02 I spent 50 bucks.
  • 07:04 So again, they can attach the receipt if I want.
  • 07:07 Because I used expense you can see expense in the upper left.
  • 07:11 At the bottom of my screen, I do not have the option to print out a check.
  • 07:16 So if I need to print this on check paper, I have to completely wipe this out and
  • 07:20 start over by making a check.
  • 07:22 Once I'm happy, I'm going to click Save and Close.

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