How Should I Code My Bills? (to expense or balance sheet)

Pros and cons of expensing to balance sheet versus expense code in Xero or QuickBooks

Table of Contents

You have flexibility to code bills to either the relevant expense account or one or more dedicated prepayment balance sheet accounts - or even mix both methods. 

Benefits of coding to the balance sheet

  • this eliminates the need to confirm items that should be treated as prepaid expenses in ScaleXP
  • it is easier to spot missing or incorrect date ranges on bills and spent money
  • you can train ScaleXP to select the correct matching expense account for a given supplier

Benefits of coding to the expense account

  • no need to select a matching expense account
  • easy to track in one prepayment asset account

You can not accrue bills which have been coded to the balance sheet, although you can choose to code prepayments to one or more prepayment asset accounts.

If you code to the balance sheet, you will be given the opportunity to choose the proper expense account for each supplier, bill or line item to end up in for the journal. You do this in Review Prepayments.

If you use multiple balance sheet accounts for prepayments, you'll need to map prepayment accounts to expense accounts to ensure the cost is allocated to the right balance sheet account. See How to Set and Change Expense Journal Settings

Only one liability account is supported for accrued expenses.  See How to Automate Accrued Cost Journals 

Prepaid Expenses:  Best Practices and Quick Start Guide 

How to Automate Expense Recognition Journals in ScaleXP 

How to Automate Accrued Cost Journals 

How to Set and Change Expense Journal Settings