Ask the Accountant…
Question: I’ve been entering charges on my debit card, which is a Visa card, into QuickBooks as a credit card charge, but something is wrong.
Answer: While a debit card looks and is accepted as a credit card, they are very different from one another, despite the Visa or MasterCard logo on the debit card.
Charges using your debit card come directly out of your checking account. In effect, these charges are electronic checks and need to be treated as such in QB. You can enter these electronic charges as checks coming out of the appropriate checking account in QB.
Instead of a check number, type “EFT” (for Electronic Funds Transfer) or “ACH” (for Automated Clearing House) in the check number field. That way, when you look in the check register for your checking account, you can easily see which transactions were actual checks (by their check number) or an electronic payment (by the EFT or ACH designation).
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