Meals and Entertainment

How do I enter meals and entertainment expenses?

Goldenseal small business accounting software allows you to track any types of expenses-- including meals and entertainment.

Account Setup

If you haven't already done so, first set up one or more accounts for the restaurants or other businesses providing the service. For restaurants or other venues that you use frequently, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Other Costs from the Accounts menu.
  2. Click the New button.
  3. Enter details for one provider of meals or entertainment.
  4. Hit the Enter key to save the record.
  5. Repeat steps 2 to 4 for each service provider that you want to track separately.

HINT-- Some people may prefer to classify restaurants as Material Supplier accounts instead. It doesn't really matter how you classify them!

If you want to group several small venues together into a single account, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Other Costs from the Accounts menu.
  2. Click the New button.
  3. Give the account a generic name such as 'Restaurants'.
  4. Turn on the Allow One-Time Names checkbox.
  5. Hit the Enter key to save the record.

Entering Expenses

When you spend money on meals or entertainment, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Other Costs from the Costs menu.
  2. Click the New button.
  3. Enter the account used for the expense. If it's a generic account, you can type in the name of a specific venue.
  4. Enter the amount of the expense.
  5. Enter Overhead as the Job Class (or enter Project if the expense applies to a specific project).
  6. Enter any Overhead account into the Job field.
  7. Click the More Info button, and enter a cost category for the expense, then click OK.
  8. Enter the type of payment used for the expense.
  9. Hit the Enter key to save the record.

NOTE-- The Office category system that comes with the Starter Files has a category for Meals & Entertainment.

Expense Posting

When you save an expense transaction, Goldenseal automatically updates job costing for whichever account you entered in the Job fields.

If you use Vendor Invoice as the payment method, Goldenseal will add the expense to your Accounts Payable. If you use another payment method, Goldenseal will automatically create a bank transaction to pay for the expense, when you save the record (and the expense is marked as Paid).

Click here to return to expense accounting topics.

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