Why create memorized transactions? Because we have too much on our minds and not enough time to waste mental power and minutes on repetitive transactions. In the video, I walk through how to create memorized transactions (i.e., Recurring Transactions). I also have a link below. In this article, I’m going to just explain the three types of recurring transactions and how I recommend using them.
Scheduled
Scheduled automatically creates and posts a transaction. This is useful when the transaction is the same each month, week, or quarter. Same day, same amount. If you have transactions like this that you are afraid of forgetting, schedule them. Here are some examples:
- Bills: I pay a list of people each month a stipend. The amount is changed only once per year. I schedule the bills to be created. When I go to pay this week’s bills, those stipends are in the list waiting to be paid. I usually create the bills 10 days before they are due. The same thing can be done using Checks instead of Bills. It records the check and waits for you to print it or assign a check number.
- Expenses: I use this for automatic payments that are the same each month. This is usually for subscriptions or certain utilities. The expense is posted automatically.
- Recurring Donations: I really encourage churches and nonprofits to make it easier for folks to give by providing for recurring electronic donations. If you track donors in QuickBooks Online, you would use a recurring Sales Receipt. If you just track the money and not the donor, setup a recurring Deposit.
- Journal Entries: If you have to deal with prepaid expenses, depreciation, or the like, this works very well to always have those recorded as of the 1st day of the month.
Unscheduled
Unscheduled will only create a transaction when you select “Use.” You have the ability to edit the transaction before it is posted. These are for transactions that are irregular in timing and likely easy to mess up.
- Unusual Donations: I think about things like stock gifts where there is the value of the gift but also a fee to sell the stock. This will help you record these consistently.
- Closing Entries: At year end, you may have a list of journal entries that you need to post. Since you only do this once each year, this will help you keep those entries straight.
Reminder
This automatically creates a task in your To Do list. I normally ignore my To Do list in QuickBooks Online so you would have to train yourself to look there. When you click on the task, you are allowed to create and edit the recurring transaction. This is great for transactions that happen regularly, but the amount or something else changes usually each time.
- Sunday Offering: Most churches have donors giving to the same list of things each week: General Fund, Mission of the Month, Sunday School, etc. You can setup a Deposit so that the categories are all setup, but the amounts just need to be filled in.
- Bills: I would use this for those bills/checks that have a different amount each month like the water bill or energy bill. If you don’t use QuickBooks for your payroll, I would include my paychecks and EFTPS (i.e., tax remittance).