Should You Enter Transactions as Journal Entries in QuickBooks?

By Harriet Gatter

Question: I had some accounting in college. Can I enter transactions in QuickBooks as journal entries instead of learning the software?

Answer: QuickBooks is designed to follow their designated flow so that your entries are recorded correctly. By doing this, the debits and credits are recorded automatically in the background of the program.

In QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise, there is a home page with a process flowchart, complete with arrows. Each step allows you to enter data, and the appropriate debits and credits are recorded eliminating the inadvertent reversing of them.

There are also a few functions, if entered as a journal entry, will cause errors and problems with QB reporting — the primary one being sales tax.

QuickBooks is designed to minimize the need for journal entries, and I suggest avoiding using them whenever possible.

Please email accounting questions you would like considered for the column to HGatter@AccountingSupportLLC.com with the subject line of "Ask the Accountant."

0 Comments

View Comments

Categories:
Promo Products

Harriet Gatter Author's page

Harriet Gatter, owner of Accounting Support LLC, was an ad specialty distributor for 23 years and an adjunct professor of accounting at Neumann University. She sold her ad specialty business in 2012, became certified as a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, and now works exclusively with ad specialty distributors nationwide on their QuickBooks, order management and accounting needs.