Entering Bank Statements

Basic accounting for a journals that if you enter anything in the debit column then you must enter an equal amount in the credit column thus the transaction balances to zero, which is what the message is telling you.

So you have probably entered a debit of 10.74 so now enter a credit of 10.74 in the same journal and it is in balance but you need to know what account to send this to. (usually Opening balance equity)

 Ok that makes sense.  So if I am following what you are saying, I entered the $10.74 as an opening balance equity so I need to now find a debit account to put that $10.74 into in order to make it equal zero.  

That is the basis of it but I am concerned that the original post was to enter a bank statement which is not what you do, you reconcile a bank statement to your banking transactions in QB .

Normally the entry to set up the opening balance for a bank account is debit bank account credit equity account of some sought. THis then shows as balance in the bank account within Qb.

If you give more details of what you are trying to do then we can help. But it looks as though you could benefit with some help and guidance of a bookkeeper.

I definitely need some guidance until I learn the basics.  Actually I hired a CPA about two weeks ago just for that purpose and we have met once.  He wants me to enter all of my bank statements in for 2009 in order to be able to print some reports for him and he showed me how to do it on the PC version but honestly by the time I got home I couldn't remember things even though I tried to take good notes.  So, I was trying to search these forums to hopefully find some answers before I had to make another appointment with him.  

It is always easier for a beginner to record deposits and checks than to record journal entries. For the beginning balance on 1/1/09, I would record a deposit as of 12/31/08. On a deposit you always have to give the "From Account" and the amount. The "From account" for the beginning balance could be Opening Balance Equity.

For the rest of the month (and year): the deposits mostly will hit a revenue/income account. If you received a refund, put it into the expense account how you recorded the payment that was refunded to you.

If you put some personal money into your business account and your CPA has not told anything about how to put it in, you should give the Suspense, I don't know, Ask my accountant account. For everything you put in there you should type a short note into the memo field.

For the checks/payments: record them as checks. You should type the vendor's (payee's) name in, but be careful: QuickBooks keeps a list of who you already typed in once. So try not to enter the same name with different spellings. The bank payments (when you have not written a check, but basically your bank paid another) should be handled as "paperless" checks - checks with no numbers. On every payment you will need to give what kind of expense have you paid with it - again, QuickBooks have a list of accounts, try not to enter any new accounts but choose from the list.

I would suggest to record the transactions from your bank statement for one month, then make an appointment with your CPA to review your work.

I hope I could help.

Reka