Use Express Accounts to keep track of the payments and purchases you make. To make a payment or enter a purchase transaction, click on the Transactions menu and select Payment Transaction, or click The Purchases tab and click the Of other payments link in the explorer bar. This brings up the Payments and Purchases dialog.

Entering a Transaction

Enter the transaction details, including who the payment is to, the amount, a journal memo (optional), and which account the payment should be allocated from. If your accounts do not balance, you cannot finalize the transaction in Express Accounts until they do; the status bar beneath the accounts list at the bottom will notify you if the accounts are out of balance.
- For more information on the details of the Payments and Purchases dialog, see the Payments and Purchases topic in the Screen References section of this manual.
- For more information about configuring payment numbering, see the Options ~ Accounting section of this manual.

You can record the payment as a cash payment, or as a check payment. To specify, click the triangle next to the Record button at the bottom of the dialog.

Create and Use Payment Templates

For payments that you make routinely, you can use Express Accounts to set up a template to save time.

Enter a payment transaction as described above, but before you record the transaction, click the Save As Template button in the lower left of the dialog. Enter a name for the template and click OK. The template will be available for use next time you enter a payment or purchase.

To use a template, open the payments and transactions dialog as described above, and click the Use Template button in the lower left of the dialog. Select the template you need to use from the list and click Load. The payment template will be loaded into the Payments and Purchases dialog. Make sure the details are as you expect them, then click Record to apply the payment.

Also see these topics in the Screen References section:

Manual Journal Entries

General payments and purchases should not be made as a manual journal entry, but there are cases when you might need to account for changes in your accounts using this method. Speak to your accountant if you are unsure when to manually enter journal entries.

To enter a payment or purchase manually on the journal, begin by opening the Journal by clicking the Transaction menu and select Manual Journal Entry to pull up the Journal Entry dialog. This dialog can also be found from the Journal by clicking the Add button in the toolbar.

Select which journal the entry should be applied to, and make a journal memo (optional). In the Account Allocation area, select an account(s) to debit money from, and account(s) to credit money to. When the accounts are balanced, click Record to save the journal entry.

View and Edit Payments

All payment and purchase entries can be viewed from the Journal. To open the journal, click the Journal icon on the toolbar of any tab, or press Ctrl+V. When the View Journal window opens, you will see a list of all journal entries, whether payment, receipts, sales, or purchases, by default. To view all payments, select the Payments tab. To edit a payment, click to select a payment entry, then click the Edit button in the toolbar to open the Journal Entry dialog. You can edit the amount and which accounts the payment was allocated to or from. Click Record to save any changes.