Entering Credit Card Transactions in QuickBooks Pro 2013

Every time you purchase or return something using your credit card, you can enter it into QuickBooks. Doing this, you can track your credit card expenses and be able to see your transactions tally with your credit card statements to easily track and check your account. You can record each transaction separately by entering it into the “Enter credit card charges” button. Remember: you are not able to see this icon if you don’t have the credit card account set-up.

The easiest way to record your credit card charges is to sign up for online banking and to download the transactions rather than manually entering them. (So you have to first set-up a credit card account before you see the Enter credit card charges button.)

To begin, choose Banking > Enter Credit Card Charges. In the Credit Card Purchase/Charge window, choose the correct Credit Card in the upper right side—it will show the ending balance due on that card.

Then, click on purchase charge or refund credit. After clicking the appropriate transaction to record, put the right Vendor name and the correct date of each particular credit card transaction along with the exact amount of each transaction.

You can also add a Memo if you want one for note purposes. In the drop down, use the correct expense account used in each transaction. You can have a multiple accounts to record transactions, but at all times make sure that the amount in each expense account is the same as on the credit card statement.

Once you confirm that all transactions are correct and in the proper expense account, click the Save & New button.

To add or record additional credit card purchases or transactions, just repeat ALL of the steps above.

In the event of a REFUND, you enter it through the same button “enter credit card charges”, and then you click the Refund Credit Button. Enter the vendor name, and then pick the correct date and exact amount of the item to be returned. Make sure that the item you returned goes back to the same account as you purchased it from before. In the upper part of the window you will see new icons such as find, new (to create a new credit
card transaction), save (to save the particular transaction), delete, create a copy (to have a copy of this particular transaction), memorize, attached file, download credit card charges, select PO (if you have a specific PO), enter time, clear splits (to clear each item and restart the recording again), and recalculate.

In the same screen, you can also run a quick report on the particular vendor if you want to. Just click the report tab button.

NOTE: It is NOT correct to record credit card transactions through the Enter Bills feature. By using this feature, you have to enter all the expense accounts in that particular statement and then pay it afterwards through the pay bills feature. But the problem is that you can only use the payment if you pay the amount of the transaction in FULL. Using the Enter Bills Feature will only show a large rotating balance of your credit card amount due if you don’t pay the payable amount transactions that are due in full.

Cindy McGuckin

Cindy McGuckin is an IT trainer with over 20 years of experience. Cindy currently manages the IT Training Department at Trident Technical College, she's a Member of the Association of IT Professionals, Charleston, SC chapter and the Treasurer of the South Carolina Association of Continuing Higher Education. Cindy is a Microsoft Office and QuickBooks expert and her online courses have received hundreds of 5-star reviews. Her no-nonsense approach to teaching complicated topics makes her classes engaging and interesting.