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Subject Author Date
"Journal Entries" in Quicken Stephen Porter 04-25-2006
Posted by Stephen Porter on April 25, 2006, 12:56 am
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 Hi,

I'm much more familiar with Quickbooks, so this may be a simple question.
I'm wondering how to simulate complicated General Journal Entries in
Quicken. An example would be a real estate closing/settlement statement
where there are many different accounts to consider: basis of the asset,
loan costs that can be amortized, non-deductible expenses, etc. I can't
seem to see a way to get all this data into the proper Quicken accounts.
I'm using Home & Business 2006.

TIA.

Stephen Porter
Los Angeles, CA
*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***

Posted by Rex's Mom on April 25, 2006, 10:48 am
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 Stephen Porter wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm much more familiar with Quickbooks, so this may be a simple question.
> I'm wondering how to simulate complicated General Journal Entries in
> Quicken. An example would be a real estate closing/settlement statement
> where there are many different accounts to consider: basis of the asset,
> loan costs that can be amortized, non-deductible expenses, etc. I can't
> seem to see a way to get all this data into the proper Quicken accounts.
> I'm using Home & Business 2006.
>
> TIA.
>
> Stephen Porter
> Los Angeles, CA
> *** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***
First thing to remember is that QuickBooks is double-entry
bookkeeping and Quicken is single-entry.

You can enter a split tansaction for the RE closing: amount
would be total amount and in the splits there would be the
associated amount and either a category (I think that is an
account in QB) or if it needs to 'post' against an actual
Quicken account, then that account would be category.

Quicken basically only does amortizations within its Loan
facility. So, you could take the loan costs and create it as
a 'loan' with an amoritzation schedule BUT...Quicken would
not automatically post...you would have to do dummy postings
to simulate reducing the outstanding amount.

In a word - QB and Quicken are sufficiently different
animals, that you need to figure out how to use.

I had my own consulting business fo over 10 years and only
ever used Quicken. Did not have inventory, created my
invoices in word processing. Did not have accruals or aging.

HTH

--

Rex's Mom


        

Posted by danbrown on April 25, 2006, 4:00 pm
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Rex's Mom wrote:

> First thing to remember is that QuickBooks is double-entry
> bookkeeping and Quicken is single-entry.

Let's nip this one in the bud RIGHT NOW.

Quicken IS (repeat IS) a double-entry accounting system ... which means
that for EVERY Quicken transaction you enter, there is an offsetting
entry to another account/category.

Quicken is a single DATA-ENTRY system, in that the accounting
double-entry takes place automatically (you don't have to create 2
separate data-entry records) ... but it still happens .

What Quicken doesn't really handle gracefully is "Equity Accounts"
(aka, Ownership Accounts) and inventory. Quicken determines your net
worth by subtracting total liabilies from total assets to arrive at a
single figure. You can do work arounds to simulate multiple
ownership/equity accounts ... but its a royal pain. If you're a sole
proprietor, Quicken can handle your needs ... otherwise look at QB.

Likewise for inventory. Quicken can handle the cash value of the
inventory, but not the "items on hand" (unless, of course, your
inventory is valued at exactly $1 per item). Since maintaining an
inventory (as opposed to purchase and immediate re-sell) invariably
involves Accrual accounting ... look at QB if you've got this issue.

db


Posted by Stephen Porter on April 25, 2006, 8:49 pm
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On 25 Apr 2006 13:00:50 -0700, danbrown wrote:

> Rex's Mom wrote:
>
>> First thing to remember is that QuickBooks is double-entry
>> bookkeeping and Quicken is single-entry.
>
> Let's nip this one in the bud RIGHT NOW.
>
> Quicken IS (repeat IS) a double-entry accounting system ... which means
> that for EVERY Quicken transaction you enter, there is an offsetting
> entry to another account/category.
>
> Quicken is a single DATA-ENTRY system, in that the accounting
> double-entry takes place automatically (you don't have to create 2
> separate data-entry records) ... but it still happens .
>
> What Quicken doesn't really handle gracefully is "Equity Accounts"
> (aka, Ownership Accounts) and inventory. Quicken determines your net
> worth by subtracting total liabilies from total assets to arrive at a
> single figure. You can do work arounds to simulate multiple
> ownership/equity accounts ... but its a royal pain. If you're a sole
> proprietor, Quicken can handle your needs ... otherwise look at QB.
>
> Likewise for inventory. Quicken can handle the cash value of the
> inventory, but not the "items on hand" (unless, of course, your
> inventory is valued at exactly $1 per item). Since maintaining an
> inventory (as opposed to purchase and immediate re-sell) invariably
> involves Accrual accounting ... look at QB if you've got this issue.
>
> db

Hi Dan (and Rex's Mom),

I understand double-entry accounting quite well and use QB mostly for
clients with businesses. I'd never try Quicken for a business with
inventory, accounts receivable, accrual-based transactions of any sort.
It's funny, but I got into Quicken because I thought a) it would be fun and
perhaps profitable to learn another system; b) I thought it might actually
be better for tracking investment accounts, especially brokerage statements
and things like that. The simple answer to my original question is the
"split" transaction, which for some reason didn't pop up when I dashed the
question off.

I used to use a program called "Financial Navigator" which handled all
KINDS of investments really well, but it's such a niche product and is
really only suitable for wealthy individuals. I'd learn Quicken faster if
it were someone else's accounting I was doing...!

Dan, I'm assuming that Quicken has some strengths and scenarios where it
works better than Quickbooks?

Thanks for the tips...learning a lot.

Stephen Porter
LA, CA


*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***

Posted by danbrown on April 26, 2006, 12:23 pm
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Stephen Porter wrote:
>
> Dan, I'm assuming that Quicken has some strengths and scenarios where it
> works better than Quickbooks?
>
> Thanks for the tips...learning a lot.
>
> Stephen Porter
> LA, CA

Stephen, thanks for the update on your background. I couldn't quite
tell for certain if you had an accounting background or not. Makes
some of this discussion easier.

I haven't used QB for a couple of years ... so I'm not sure what
current features are. My understanding, comparing Q to QB of a couple
of years ago, is that Q (and Q H&B) are MUCH better for personal
accounting (including sole proprietorships without inventory issues).

The electronic downloads of banking and investment transactions makes
personal bookkeeping actually quite easy. The versions of QB that I
worked with didn't handle investment accounts with any grace at all
(you could create an asset account to hold the investments, but you'd
have to track the securities in something else and cross-post).

Q (including H&B) assumes that there's only one financial entity per
file-set. So while you can sub-divide income (for example) using
classes, ALL transactions flow to the single bottom-line. Also note my
earlier note regarding things Q doesn't do.

BTW, while I live in Nashville now (and consult on financial systems
for the big banks & brokerages), I'm a former Wells Fargo Audit VP in
SF.

db


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