Enter Credit Card Charges records spending on a company credit card as it happens. Each charge increases what you owe the card company and puts the cost against the expense accounts or items you choose. A refund or credit back to the card does the opposite. When the card statement arrives you reconcile the card account against it, the same way you reconcile a bank account.
The form works like Write Cheques: the same Expenses and Items tabs, the same tax handling. The differences are described below.
Before you start
You need a credit card account in your Chart of Accounts: an account with the detail type Credit Card. If there is none, the form says There is no credit card account in the books. Add one in Accounting ▸ Chart of Accounts with the detail type Credit Card. See Add, edit, merge or make an account inactive.
Opening the form
- Banking ▸ Enter Credit Card Charges opens a blank charge. Esc from it goes back to the Home Page.
- Reports ▸ Banking ▸ Credit Card Charges Register lists every charge and credit; Enter Charge / Credit starts a new one and any row opens that charge.
Enter a charge, step by step
- Choose the Credit Card account the purchase went on.
- Leave Purchase/Charge selected.
- Type the Ref No. if you want one, such as the receipt number or the last digits of the authorization.
- Set the Date of the purchase.
- In Purchased From, search for the vendor and pick them. You can leave it empty for a charge with no particular vendor, such as the card's annual fee.
- Enter the lines on the Expenses tab and, for items on your Item List, the Items tab. Amounts on the Expenses tab include tax unless you tick EXCL. TAX on the line. See The Expenses tab for every column.
- Attach the card slip or receipt in the Card slip or receipt strip.
- Choose Save & Close, or Save & New to enter the next charge.
Enter a refund or credit
- Open a new charge and choose Refund/Credit at the top. You can only switch between Purchase/Charge and Refund/Credit on a new form; once saved, a charge stays a charge and a credit stays a credit.
- Choose the card, the date and, in Purchased From, who the refund is from. A credit must have a name.
- Enter the refund on the Expenses tab, against the same accounts the original purchase used. The Items tab is not available on a credit.
- Save.
The fields
| Field | What to enter / what it means |
|---|---|
| Credit Card | The credit card account. Only credit card accounts are offered. |
| Purchase/Charge / Refund/Credit | Whether money is being spent on the card or coming back to it. New forms only. |
| Ref No. | Your reference for the charge. Optional. |
| Date | The date of the purchase or refund. |
| Purchased From | The vendor. Optional on a charge, required on a credit. |
| Amount | The total of the lines, tax included. Not typed. |
| Memo | A note for the whole charge. |
The Expenses and Items tabs have the same columns as on a cheque, except that a credit has no BILLABLE or CLASS column and no Items tab.
The buttons
Delete, Void, Duplicate, Memorize, Save & New and Save & Close work as they do on a cheque. There is no Print button. Void keeps the charge in the card register at zero, marked VOID; Delete removes it, and warns that a reconciliation it was cleared in will no longer balance.
What happens in the books
- A charge credits the credit card account (what you owe the card company goes up) and debits each expense line's account with the amount before tax. GST/HST goes to your input tax credits account in a Canadian company; provincial sales tax is added to the cost. Item lines add the items to stock.
- A credit does the reverse: the card account is debited (what you owe goes down) and the expense accounts are credited.
- When you pay the card company, record the payment as a cheque or a transfer from the bank account to the card account. See Transfer Funds.
Permissions
The role needs Enter Credit Card Charge / Credit to create, Edit Credit Card Charge / Credit to change, and Delete Credit Card Charge / Credit to void or delete.
Messages you may see
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| Choose the credit card. | Pick the card account at the top. |
| Choose who the credit is from. | A refund or credit needs a name in Purchased From. |
| Every Expenses line needs an account. | Pick an account on every line with an amount, or delete the line. |
| Add a line on the Expenses or Items tab. | The form has no lines yet. |
| The amount has to be more than zero. | The lines add up to zero or less. |
Tips
- Enter charges as the receipts come in, then reconcile the card account when the statement arrives. Anything on the statement you have not entered shows up as the difference.
- Charges you make every month (a software subscription, for instance) can be memorized and entered again from the Memorized Transaction List.