One reason that debits and credits are confusing is that the words have the exact opposite meanings when your bank uses them. How debits and credits change the values in accounts And (here’s a real mind-bender) a credit card charge is a credit to your credit card liability account because purchases on credit increase the amount you owe. A loan payment is a debit to your loan account because it decreases your loan balance (a liability). For example, buying a machine is a debit to the equipment asset account because it increases the value of the equipment (assets) you own. Table 16-1 shows what debits and credits do for different types of accounts and can take some of the pain out of creating journal entries. To transfer money from one income account to another, you debit one account and credit the other. For each transaction, the total in the Debit column has to equal the total in the Credit column. (Whether the debit and credit increase or decrease the account balance depends on the type of account, as Table 16-1 shows.) If you commit anything about accounting to memory, it should be the definitions of debit and credit, because they’re the key to successful journal entries, accurate financial reports, and understanding what your accountant is talking about.įigure 16-1. These changes in value are called debits and credits. When you move money between accounts, you increase the balance in one account and decrease the balance in the other-just as shaking some money out of your piggy bank decreases your savings balance and increases the money in your pocket. In double-entry accounting, both sides of any transaction have to balance, as the transaction in Figure 16-1 shows. Don’t worry: Both terms and abbreviations refer to the same account register changes. However, QuickBooks uses the term “ general journal entry” and the corresponding abbreviation GJE. In the accounting world, you’ll hear the term “journal entry” and see it abbreviated JE. However, you’ll want to talk to your bookkeeper or accountant about the journal entries you need and the accounts to use in them. This chapter gets you started by showing you how to create journal entries and providing examples of journal entries you’re likely to need. And unfortunately, QuickBooks doesn’t have any magic looking glass that makes these assignments crystal clear. The steps for creating a journal entry are deceptively easy it’s assigning money to accounts in the correct way that’s maddeningly difficult for weekend accountants. By using transactions, your QuickBooks reports will contain all the info you expect, and you’ll have the financial details you need if the IRS starts asking questions. For example, if you posted income to your only income account but have since decided that you need several income accounts to track the money you make, journal entries are the way to reclassify money in that original income account to the new ones.Īlthough journal entries are the only solution for some tasks in QuickBooks, it’s best to use QuickBooks transactions instead whenever possible. In the accounting world, these direct manipulations are known as journal entries. But every once in a while, these transactions can’t help, and your only choice is moving money around directly between accounts. When you write checks, receive payments, and perform many other tasks in QuickBooks, the program creates transactions that unobtrusively handle the double-entry accounting for you. Most of the time, you don’t need to know double-entry accounting ( Accounting Basics: The Important Stuff) to use QuickBooks. QuickBooks 2014: The Missing Manual (2014) Part II.
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