A journal entry indicates a transaction relating to accounting that is entered by you. Entries of this type help you in entering your transactions. Through these entries, money can be moved between some accounts in QuickBooks. By moving it, you are able to balance the transactions in certain columns. To record or add a journal/general journal entry in QuickBooks, the Company menu is often used. However, considering that some of you may use QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, QB Pro, the approach to creating journal entries can differ.
To know how to make a journal entry in QuickBooks and its versions using the right approach, you can read this post. Along with the common versions of the software, you can also get help to record these entries in the QB 2014, 2015, and 2013 versions.
The main points of this post have been summarized below:
Why Do You Make Journal Entries in QuickBooks?
You can make a journal entry in QuickBooks Online, QB Desktop, and other versions due to the following reasons:
- Through journal entries, debits, as well as credits, can be entered via a manual approach.
- By recording them, money can be transferred to accounts like expenses, income, etc.
- When journal entries are created, an asset/liability can be transferred from money to your expense/income account.
How Do I Make a General Journal Entry in QuickBooks?
The users of QuickBooks can make a journal entry by visiting the Company menu. This menu will provide you with an option that says Make General Journal Entries. Utilizing this option, enter a date or let the default date be used. Now, you need to mention the Entry No. for the entry that is being recorded. The following step is to write the account number in the column of Account. Soon after this, you will have to verify that the amounts in the columns of Credit and Debit are the same.
You can explore more on how to do a journal entry in QuickBooks through these instructions:
- Enter “Company” in the software.
- Click on the “Make General Journal Entries” option.
- In “Date”, make the changes as per your requirement.
Note: A default date is used by QuickBooks for posting a journal entry. By default, this date will be set to the present one. To record a journal entry for any other date, changes will have to be made in the field of “Date”.
- In “Entry No.”, insert a number for the QuickBooks journal entry.
Note: Based on the number of this journal entry, the succeeding entry will get numbered.
- Go to “Account Column”. Provide the account number for the general ledger.
Note: As an alternative, you may tap on the dropdown and pick the initial account.
- In “Credit” or “Debit”, the debit/credit amount needs to be added.
- Ensure that the credit and debit amounts are equal for adding a balanced journal entry.
- As an optional step, click on “Memo Column” to add any descriptive memo.
- Steps 5 to 8 need to be repeated for balancing all the entries.
- Now, see to it that the sums of the credit column and debit column are the same.
- Select “Save & Close”/”Save & New”.
Note: Sometimes there can be certain journal entries that affect the accounts payable of a vendor or the account receivable of a customer. For recording such entries in QuickBooks, the vendor/customer will have to be included in the entry’s initial line.
How to Create a Journal Entry in QuickBooks Desktop?
For recording an entry or a journal entry in QB Desktop, first, you need to open the Company option. This option gives you a direct way to record this entry via Make General Journal Entries. On the display, a few fields will appear. To continue making the entry, these fields will have to be filled in. After these fields have been completely filled, ensure that the values in the debit and credit fields are balanced. Now, the journal entry will have been recorded. You only need to save the changes.
Grasp more information on how to make a journal entry in QuickBooks Desktop with these steps:
Note: The following steps will help you record a journal entry in QuickBooks Desktop on Windows as well as Mac computers.
- Find the icon of “QuickBooks Desktop” on your system.
- Press the software’s icon twice to run it.
- Open the menu that mentions “Company”.
- Head to “Make General Journal Entries”.
- Certain fields will be seen. Fill them to continue making a journal entry.
- After filling the fields, check that the credit and debit fields are equal.
- Now, click on one of the following options:
- “Save or Close”
- “Save”
How Do You Make a Journal Entry in QuickBooks Online?
As a QBO user, a journal entry can be created or added using the +New tab. You will see this tab when the software is running. Selecting the Journal Entry option, locate its first line. This is where you have to make the journal entries in QuickBooks Online. On this line, tap on Account and then choose a suitable account. To proceed, decide whether you would like to credit/debit your account. Coming to the second line, an account has to be picked. This account should be the one to/from which you are moving your money.
- In the beginning, the software needs to be opened.
- press the “+New” tab.
- Move to “Journal Entry”.
- When the first line is seen, click on “Account” and choose one.
- Decide whether the account needs to be credited or debited.
- Then insert the amount in the credit/debit column.
- In the second line, pick that account from/to which the money is being moved.
- Ensure that when debit/credit is chosen in the first line, an equivalent amount is entered in the column opposite to it.
- Check the amounts in the credit and debit columns are the same.
- Visit the section of “Memo”. Mention the reason for creating the journal entry.
- Now, either click on “Save and Close” or tap on “Save and New”.
These directions explain how to make a journal entry in QuickBooks Online. To make multiple entries, you can add them one by one in the process. Or, you can make new entries for recording them.
How Do I Record a Journal Entry in QuickBooks Pro?
QuickBooks Pro is among the commonly used versions of this software. For adding a general journal entry to it, you can go through its Company menu. For continuing, tap on Make General Journal Entries. On selecting this option, you will find a notification. It will notify you that the general journal entries will be auto-numbered due to the Auto-sequencing feature being on. You can turn off this feature if required. Then you can provide a date for the general journal entry.
Go through the following directions to know how to create a general journal entry in QuickBooks Pro:
- Find the “Company” menu in “QuickBooks Pro”.
- From this menu, select “Make General Journal Entries”.
- A notification may be received. It will mention that journal entries are automatically numbered by QB. Now, disable “Auto-sequencing”.
Note: As an alternative, you may make changes to the starting number of the entries.
- Select “Ok”.
- Press the dropdown for “Calendar”.
- Select a date for QuickBooks journal entry.
- You may see the option to adjust the number of the journal entry. Use it if required.
- In the entry, the debited accounts need to be listed.
- Now, list the credited account.
- Pick that account which has to be debited.
- In “Debit” input the amount.
- Now, provide “Memo”. Also, add a name for it.
- Ensure that the amount you enter in “Debit” has been marked as billable.
- Click on the dropdown available.
- The credited account needs to be chosen.
Note: After this step, the credited amount will be entered by the software in the “Credit” field. You can check that the amounts in credit and debit match each other. A memo can again be added for your credited account. Its amount should be mentioned as billable.
- In the end, save the changes and exit the software. Or, you may choose “Save & New”.
Note: While creating the journal entries in QuickBooks, you may make any errors. Use the “Edit” option to correct those errors and then again save the changes.
How to Make a Journal Entry in QuickBooks 2014, 2015, and 2013?
This section will brief you about how to make a journal entry in QuickBooks 2015, 2014, or 2013. This entry will be made through the Company menu. This menu comes with the feature to add general journal entries in the year versions of QuickBooks. To make the most of this feature, you can choose it and input information such as Date, Entry No., as well as the values of the amount for the general journal entry.
- Run the year version of QB.
- Tap on “Company” to view the menu.
- The option of “Make General Journal Entries” has to be clicked on.
- Enter “Date” or let the default date be used.
- Look for “Entry No.” and mention a number for the entry.
- Open “Account Column”.
- The account number needs to be inserted for the general ledger. Or, press the dropdown option. Then choose the account that is first.
- Start mentioning the amount you wish to add in “Credit”/”Debit”.
- You will find certain amounts in the columns of “Credit” and “Debit”. Ensure that they are balanced.
- Tap on “Memo Column”. Fill this column with a description.
- Perform steps 6 to 11 one more time to balance every journal entry.
- After this, the values in both the “Debit” and “Credit” columns need to be checked. Confirm that the sums of these values are the same.
- Save the changes and close QuickBooks 2013/2014/2015.
To Conclude,
To make or create a journal entry in QuickBooks, the right method is needed. Here, we attempted to share this method with you. Since the varying versions of QB can require different ways to record such entries, we shared the other methods as well. While adding the entries in the software, we hope that these methods reduce your difficulties.
Here is another reading that can be useful for you. See how to change the ship to address in QuickBooks by clicking here. You can also learn how to change the invoice address in QuickBooks with this post.