Leaving Credit Card Charges as Journal Entries

Question: Can I enter credit card charges as journal entries in QuickBooks Premier?

Answer: QuickBooks strongly discourages making journal entries, except in a few rare instances. You should not enter credit card charges as journal entries. QuickBooks has an icon on the homepage just for that. It’s in the lower right-hand corner of the homepage called “Enter Credit Card Charges.”

When you click on this, make sure that the correct credit card is selected at the top if you have multiple credit cards set up in QuickBooks. You can also select whether you are recording a Purchase/Charge (most common) or a Refund/Credit. When you enter these credit card transactions, they will automatically enter against that credit card account, and you will see a running total of your balance on the screen.

When you receive your credit card statement, you can go to the “Reconcile” icon on the homepage and select the credit card as the account to be reconciled. You can then reconcile this account against the statement similar to the way you reconcile your checking account.

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