Using QuickBooks with an American Express Credit Card

It is possible for a small business owner to use their credit card in conjunction with Intuit’s market leading small business accounting package, QuickBooks.  This feature is currently only offered by American Express.  This may be a factor if a business is reviewing the small business credit card that they are using and they already have QuickBooks.

Intuit QuickBooks is a market leading accounting software package that is aimed at small business owners.  It has the aim of making book keeping simple for a business owner while also carrying out a wide range of accounting functions over a wide range of business types.  There are a large number of professional book keepers and accountants who are proficient in QuickBooks.

Using the credit card saves time for the small business owner as expenses can be quickly loaded in and less time is spent typing or looking for receipts and invoices.  This also improves accuracy as typing in invoices has an error rate of around 3%.

It is always a good idea for a business owner to have separate credit cards for their business and personal expenses.  This is more so with the direct importing of data into the accounts, as it is quite possible either for personal expenses to be included when they should not be, or conversely for business expenses to be overlooked when vetting expenses.

To set up the facility it is necessary to go to the banking menu within QuickBooks.  The user should then go to “set up online financial services” and select the option to apply for online banking.  There will be a selection of screens that should all be clicked through and the credit/charge card access screen will appear.  Within this screen the option American Express should be chosen.

Importing is then done through an internet connection, and can be activated quite easily through the file menu.   It is not a good idea to set this import automatically as it is quite possible that the import could interrupt other work and the time taken will not be under the control of whoever operates the QuickBooks program.

The import of the items should not replace the keeping of records, which should still be stored in a safe place as a tax audit may still require that receipts be produced.  It may also be necessary to check that the categories are correct and that some personal spending has not come through.