Direct Expenses

Can I enter expenses directly into a checkbook record?

If you are used to Quicken or Quickbooks, you can enter expenses directly into a checkbook record.

WARNING-- If you also have billed purchases, it's much better to enter all of your purchases into Material Purchases instead of using direct expenses. That way all your purchases will be in one place. You should also use Material Purchases if you want detailed job costing, or if you'll include the expenses in time and materials billing.

Setting up for Direct expenses

Before you can enter direct expenses, you'll have to turn on that feature. Do the following:

1. Choose Preferences from the Options menu, and choose Expenses from the submenu.
2. Turn on the Allow Direct Bank Purchases checkbox.
3. Click OK.

NOTE-- We turn this feature off as a default, since it's much better to use expense transactions under the Costs menu, instead. An instant purchase is no more difficult to enter than a direct bank expense!

Expense Breakdowns

Follow these steps to enter direct expenses into Goldenseal accounting software:

1. Choose Checking Transactions from the Bank menu, and choose an account from the submenu.
2. Click the New button.
3. Enter the type of payment into the Pay To field, and an account into the Account field.
4. Click on the Breakdown popup field on the left side of the window, and choose a Category or Items breakdown.
5. Click in the first row of the breakdown table, and enter one expense item.
6. Hit the Return key (Mac) or Enter key (Windows) to add a new row.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 until you have entered all expense details.
8. Choose Save Record from the Edit menu to save the record and post it to job costs, etc.

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