How to Book a Journal Entry in QuickBooks
QuickBooks is designed with a bank account as the central vehicle for posting transactions. By writing checks, recording bank deposits, and reconciling the bank accounts, most of the income and expenses of the business are captured. However, occasionally a bookkeeper must post a transaction which does not involve cash. In such cases, a general journal entry must be made. One common example is the recording of depreciation expense. Assume a bookkeeper needs to record June's depreciation of the business assets in the amount of $800.
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Instructions
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Open the QuickBooks file. If you have only one QuickBooks file, the file will automatically open when QuickBooks is opened. If you have other QuickBooks accounts, the one you worked in last will be opened.
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Create a general journal entry. Choose "Company" from the menu across the top. Under "Company", choose "Make General Journal Entries". A new screen will open showing the current date, a generated journal entry number and blank lines to use in completing the journal entry. Adjust the date of the journal entry to the specific date for the entry. In our example, the date would be June 30. Adjust the journal entry number to your preference. For instance, "junedepr" might be used in our example.
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Complete the entry. Click on the first line below the date and journal entry number and use the drop-down box to choose the account to debit. In our example, the appropriate account is "Depreciation Expense." Enter the amount to debit in the next column, $800 to continue our example. Skip over the credit column and use the memo column to type a description for the entry. "To record June depreciation," for our example. Click on the next line down, choose the account to credit. In our example, the account to credit is "Accumulated Depreciation." Skip over the debit column and enter the amount to credit in the next column, again $800 for our example. Depending on which version of QuickBooks you are using, the memo column may pre-populate with the description from the line above or not. If not, type in the description again. Save the entry by clicking "Save and Close" at the bottom right of the journal entry box.
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