How to track credit card expenses in Buildium

Credit card transactions are usually considered liability accounts, because when you use a credit card, the card company is essentially giving you a small loan that needs to be paid back. However, in Buildium this information is easier to track by using a fictitious or "dummy" bank account to track your credit card balances instead.

The advantage of this method is that you are then able to record credit card purchases via a bank account register rather than having to take more advanced accounting steps to record them as general journal entries against a liability account.

Note: A "credit card" bank account will have a negative balance when there are unpaid credit card purchases.

To create a fictitious bank account to track credit card balances:

1. Navigate to Accounting > Banking.
2. Click Add bank account.
3. Name the account after the credit card you want to track.
4. Leave the account and routing number blank.
5. Click Save.

1. Navigate to Accounting > Banking.
2. Click the bank account that is being used for credit card transactions.
3. Click Record check.
4. Enter information about the purchase. This check should represent the purchase that was made on your credit card. If you start with a $0 balance on the card, this will bring the account into the negative, representing that money is owed on the card.
   
   Which property should you attach the transaction to? It depends.
   
   
   • If you are tracking general overhead expenses, your company owns the credit card, or you plan to mark up the expense to the rental owner, choose your company entity for the purchase. 
     
     
     
     
   • If you want to put the expense on the property's books, choose the property. Be careful, though. When you pay off credit card expense, you'll need to choose the same property.
     
     For example, if you make a $150 expense to Hank the Handyman and tie it to 15 Main Street, then the payment used in the next step to pay off the credit card will need to also use 15 Main Street's books.
     
     
5. Click Save.
   
   
   

1. Navigate to Accounting > Banking.
2. Click the bank account that is being used for credit card transactions.
3. If the credit card payment you're making is using your company entity, click Record other transaction.
4. If the payment you're making is covering several different properties, you can use a bank deposit and the other deposit items section instead. This method is trickier because you'll need a "wash" account like Money in Transfer to make it work. See Transferring money using a check and deposit for details.
5. Enter information about the payment.

   Not sure which property to choose? Pick the same property (or properties) that you used above when you recorded the initial expense.
   
   For example, we recorded an $150 expense on 15 Main Street's books above. To record the payment, you'll use an $150 other bank transaction on 15 Main Street. If you use a bank deposit, there will be an $100 line item for 100 Main Street.

6. Click Save.