Checks written out to "Cash"

That's one possibility, but if you are a sole proprietor/llc single owner, you should be writing that to yourself and posting to a owner's draw account.  Writing a check to Cash is nearly the same as handing somebody cash itself, which you can do to make purchases or pay expenses.  You could account for it that way.

What makes me wonder is why you pay that way in the first place.  If it's somebody trying to profit off the record, don't be complicit.  Make sure you send them a 1099 at the end of the year like anybody else.

I'd like to see a CPA response here.

Deni

I am at a location where there is another business on the property.  A part came for me that needed to be paid for.  i was out of the office and the owner of the other business thought he would "help" me and pay for the part with cash, $250.  he wanted me to write a check to him made out to cash.  I feel like I should write it out to his business as he did not need to pay for the part, I would have written the store a check later.  Just wanted to know if I would get into any sort of trouble if I do write it out to "cash".

Thank you for your response.

-Connor

 I see.  Well, writing a check to his business isn't really right because he's not the vendor.  You didn't buy the part from him.  Seems to me at this point you will need to write a check to Cash (treat it like Petty Cash if you have a Petty Cash account set up, although the amount is rather high).  Use the Write Checks window where you can assign a Customer:Job if that matters to you.

Make sure you have a receipt.  You don't want to have the vendor invoicing you for the amount.  

Deni