Personal & Business Expenses

Sandra asks: I've read your book, and am trying to move from Quicken for my personal finances to QuickBooks. I read understand using Other Income and Other Expenses for personal accounts but I am confused about where to put my personal checking and credit card, home mortgage, car loan. I tried using a business class and a personal class, but could not assign “personal” to the bank account types.

Sounds like you've done a great job of separating out your personal finances from business finances (which the IRS loves), so the ideal solution is to have two databases, one for business and one for personal. That way you won't have to concern yourself with a). Other Income and Other Expenses, which is just a strategy for people who are commingling funds, or b). Classes, which is never the way to separate business from personal finances. You'll have to flip back and forth between databases, but that's simple in QuickBooks.

You may want to re-read the chapter on Business Structures to clarify if this is he right solution for you.