Skip to main content
K
kris10bake
April 10, 2025
Question

Personal vs business accounts

  • April 10, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views

I have two personal bank accounts and several credit cards. None of them are designated “business” accounts – they are all personal accounts/cards that I had before I ever started my business. However, when I started my business I used those bank accounts and 2-3 of those credit cards for business transactions (I know, I know, not supposed to do that, but, here we are). So, it’s a big mix of mostly personal and some business transactions that flow through all of those accounts.

Q:  When I make the monthly payment to one of those credit cards, do I label it as “Credit Card payment” or would it be better to categorize as “Personal Expense”?

    1 reply

    FishingForAnswers
    FishingForAnswers
    April 11, 2025

    @kris10bake  You'd probably be best off cleaning house as far as the mixed bag goes.

     

    This would mostly consist of making some entries to adjust the balance of the bank accounts and credit cards in question back to zero, most likely using Equity as the balancing factor; the details depend on what kind of business you have.

     

    As far as your actual question, it depends on whether your credit cards are present in QB. If they are, you may as well have it pay down the balance of said credit card account until you get time to tidy things up with your books.

     

    If they are not, then as before, you'd be better off using some variety of Equity account.

     

    This is because using your personal credit card to pay for business expenses is effectively you putting Equity into the business; it's just removing the step of depositing cash into the business, with you taking on a personal liability instead.

     

    Likewise, any paybacks to you would be a reduction in Equity.

    K
    kris10bakeAuthor
    April 14, 2025

    Thank you for your response.  I think I get it, but let me rephrase the question to clarify: 

     

    What about payments from my personal checking acct (that IS linked to my QBO) to other credit cards that are NOT linked to my QBO? (such as my AMEX, when QBO asks me to “select which credit card you are paying down” there is no AMEX to select because it’s not linked….)  Would I just categorize this as a Personal Expense then? (If I try to list it as a credit card payment, it gives me an error bc it wants to know which credit card)

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement