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Enter and manage expenses in QuickBooks Online

by Intuit•27• Updated about 17 hours ago

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Track your business spending and profit by recording business expenses in QuickBooks Online. Use this task to record, edit, and delete expenses you've already paid. This helps you maintain accurate records and understand your business's financial health.

If you've already paid for a business expense, enter it as an expense. On the other hand, if you plan to pay for the expense in the future, enter it as a bill. These are specific transaction types that tell QuickBooks how to record everything. These transaction types help QuickBooks record everything correctly.

Or, learn the difference between bills, cheques and expenses.

You can also connect your bank account to QuickBooks to track expense transaction data from your bank, directly into QuickBooks. Check out this quick video to learn more about connecting your bank account:

Record an expense

Follow these steps if you have already paid for a business expense and need to record it in QuickBooks:
Tip: If you have lots of expenses to record, you can also enter them directly into the account history.

Select + New. Then select Expense.
In the Payee field, select the supplier. Tip: If the transaction covers multiple petty cash expenses, leave this field empty.
In the Payment account field, select the account you used to pay for the expense.
In the Payment date field, enter the date for the expense.
In the Payment method field, select how you paid for the expense.
If you want detailed tracking, enter a Ref no. This is optional.
In the Tags field, enter the preferred label to categorise your money.
In the Category details section, enter the expense info. In the Category dropdown, select the expense account you use to track expense transactions. Then enter a description. Tip: You can also enter specific products and services in the Item details section to itemise the expense.
Enter the Amount and GST.
If you plan to bill a customer for the expense, select the Billable checkbox and enter their name in the Customer or Customer/Project field. Learn more about billable expenses.
When you're done, select Save and close.

You can also enter notes in the Memo field. These appear in the Account history and on reports.

If you would like a paper copy of the expense, select Print.

Managing expenses

Edit an expense

Since you already paid for expenses you enter into QuickBooks, you can edit them anytime. However, if you decided to bill your customer for the expense, edits you make will impact the invoice you send them later on:

Note: If you decide to bill your customer for the expense, edits you make will impact the invoice you send them later on.

Go to Expenses and select Expenses (Take me there).
Find the expense you want to edit. Select View/Edit in the Action column.
Update the transaction as needed.
Select Save and close.

Review your expenses for each supplier

You can see the income and expenses for each customer.

Go to Reports (Take me there).
Run an Income by Customer Summary report.

Delete an expense

Go to Expenses and select Expenses (Take me there).
Find the expense you want to delete.
Select the View/Edit ▼ dropdown in the Action column, then select Delete.
Select Delete to confirm that you want to delete the transaction.

Note: Once you delete an expense, it disappears from reports, but you can still see a record of it in the Audit log.

Result

Your expenses are accurately recorded, edited, or removed, keeping your business records clean and current.