Spend Money Overview

Using the Spend Money window
Using the Spend Money window to record credit card purchases
Voiding check numbers
Creating recurring templates
Finding, changing, removing and reversing Spend Money transactions
Recording withdrawals from your Spend Money account without creating a check
Printing checks
See also Receive Money Overview

In MYOB Accounting Plus, you can use Spend Money to record transactions that affect your company’s checking accounts, credit card accounts, petty cash accounts and other cash accounts.

For information about reconciling accounts see Reconciling checking accounts located in Month-end Procedures.

Using the Spend Money window

Spend Money accounts

The list in the upper left corner of the Spend Money window displays all the Detail Checking and Detail Credit Card accounts you’ve set up. Remember that these accounts can be used for any cash disbursement method. Credit cards, petty cash, money market accounts and other methods for making payments may be displayed in this list.

Only accounts you’ve specifically designated as Detail Checking or Detail Credit Card accounts appear in the list. If you want a particular account to appear in this list, you’ll need to create the account first. See Creating accounts to learn how to create checking and credit card accounts.

The account numbers appear in the list according to their General Ledger account number, starting with the lowest number first. If you wish to have the account you use the most appear automatically in the window when you open the Spend Money window, be sure that account has a lower General Ledger account number than any other checking or credit card account.

If you want to use a checking or credit card account that has been assigned a currency other than your home currency, first choose the currency associated with the account. Click the Currency button to display the Exchange Rate window. Click the arrow next to the Currency field and choose the currency associated with the account you want from the list of currencies that appears. Click OK to close the Exchange Rate window. All the checking and credit card accounts that use the selected currency will appear in the account list, along with your home currency accounts.

Spend Money window details

In the Spend Money window, you can choose to select a card from the Card File list so that the transaction will appear in the list of all transactions that are linked to the card or you can choose not to use a card and simply enter the payee’s name in the Payee field. You might want to enter the payee’s name and not create a card if the transaction is a one-time transaction -- a donation to a charity, for example.

Warning: Spend Money transactions can’t be used to close billsIf you’ve recorded orders or bills for vendors using the Purchases command center, in order to make payments to the orders or bills, you must enter the payments using the Purchases command center -- the Vendor Payments window or the Purchases Register window.

Spend Money transactions can’t be used to close bills or make payments to orders.

To indicate which accounts will be affected by the transaction, simply enter account numbers in the Allocation Account columns and amounts in the Amount column.

The amount you entered in the Amount field in the top half of the window is considered a credit amount, and the amounts you enter in this column are considered debit amounts.

Keep in mind that the amount(s) you apply in the Amount column will accumulate in the Total Applied field and the Total Applied amount must equal the amount that appears in the Amount field in the top half of the window before you can record the transaction. The Out of Balance amount must be zero before you record.

Choose Recap Transaction from the Edit menu to view the accounting entries that will be made to your financial records when you record the transaction.

Mark the Already Printed option if you’re recording a paper check that’s already been written, or if you’re recording another type of transaction (such as a petty cash payment) that doesn’t require a printed check at the end of the transaction.

Using the Spend Money window to record credit card purchases

You can use the Spend Money window to track the balance due and expenses incurred on a company credit card.

Before you begin recording credit card purchases, be sure to create a liability account to track the amount owed to each credit card provider. These accounts must be detail credit card accounts. For more information about creating credit card accounts, see Creating accounts.

If you don’t have time to record credit card purchases as you make them, record your purchases when the statement arrives and allocate them to the appropriate expense accounts.

As with checking accounts, you can reconcile your credit card account using the Reconcile Accounts window. See Reconciling checking accounts for more information.

Voiding check numbers

For any number of reasons, you may want to void a check number. You may, for example, find that one of your check forms is damaged and not usable for printing or you may realize that after printing a check for a vendor, the amount of the check is not correct.

Since the check form in the first example will never be used, you may want to void the check number. When you void a check number, no amounts are assigned to the check; instead, VOID appears as the check’s amount in the Cash Disbursements Journal.

In the second example, a check transaction using a check number has been recorded, so in addition to voiding the check number, you’ll remove or reverse the incorrect check transaction to remove the transaction from your records. (Whether you’ll remove or reverse the transaction depends upon whether your data file is changeable or unchangeable. To know if you have a changeable or unchangeable data file, see What are changeable and unchangeable transactions?) You’ll then enter a new, correct check transaction to replace the original transaction.

Note: Spend Money transactions can be changed If you have a changeable data file, the check number and other entries in the Spend Money window can be changed. If you printed a check that you no longer want, you’ll edit the original check transaction, and you may want to void the check number. To know if you have a changeable or unchangeable data file, see What are changeable and unchangeable transactions?

Click below for the step-by-step procedure:

Creating recurring templates

If you plan to record the same transaction in the Spend Money window on a regular basis, you may want to consider creating a recurring template. When you create a recurring template, the template information is saved in a separate “holding area” where you can retrieve the template as many times as you want in the future.

Until you record them, recurring templates have no effect on your financial records.

In order to store a transaction as a recurring template, you’ll enter information in the Save Recurring Template window and click Save Template. Be aware that you haven’t recorded the transaction yet; you’ve merely stored the recurring information. When you want to record the transaction, you’ll click Record in the Spend Money window.

Finding, changing, removing and reversing Spend Money transactions

There may be times when you need to change, remove or reverse a transaction you’ve entered into the MYOB system. When this is the case, you can choose to make changes to transactions entered in the Spend Money window so your records are updated properly. (You can make changes to transactions if your data file is changeable.) You can also choose instead to quickly remove the effects of the transaction from your records by removing or reversing the transaction. Then, if you want, you can enter a new, correct transaction to replace the transaction. If you want, you can make a few changes to the new transaction (such as the date and the memo), but you can’t change the accounts and amounts that are associated with it. When you record the reversal, all account balances will be returned to their previous levels. (Whether you remove or reverse transactions depends upon whether your transactions are changeable or unchangeable.)

For more information about changeable and unchangeable transactions see What are changeable and unchangeable transactions?

You can change and remove a recurring template whether your transactions are changeable or unchangeable. The template is removed from your list of recurring templates only. Any transactions you’ve already recorded using the recurring template won’t be affected.

Recording withdrawals from your Spend Money account without creating a check

There are two ways to record withdrawals from your checking account without creating a check:

  • By entering a transaction in the Spend Money window
  • By creating a General Journal entry in the General Journal Entry window

Whichever method you choose, you’ll be able to work with the transaction in the Inquiry Register and Reconcile Accounts windows. The only major differences between the two types of transactions are that Spend Money transactions appear in the Cash Disbursements Journal and can be linked to a card, whereas General Journal entries appear in the General Journal and can’t be associated with a particular card.

When you enter the withdrawal in the Spend Money window, enter a word or phrase instead of a number in the Check No. field. That way, you’ll know the transaction isn’t an actual check when you view it in an inquiry window or on a report. This will also allow you to skip the transaction when you print a range of numbered checks.

Printing checks

You can choose to print a check at the time you enter the check or you can choose to print the check at a later time. You can print and reprint individual checks, or you can print and reprint several checks at the same time -- the choice is yours.

You can choose to print and reprint a single check at the Spend Money window; you can print and reprint a batch of checks by clicking the Print Checks button at the command center. If you wish to reprint a batch of checks, be sure the Unprinted Checks Only selection isn’t marked when you choose information in the Forms Selection window. (The Forms Selection window is displayed when you click the Print Checks button.)

Before you begin printing

See Forms Overview if you need information about:

  • Aligning forms in your printer
  • Previewing the look of your forms before you print them
  • Customizing the look of your forms
To choose a form layout for your checks:

In the Forms Selection window, accessed by clicking the Print Checks button at the command center, you can choose to print your checks on a continuous feed or laser printer, and you can customize your checks so they’ll look the way you want them to look. Collectively, these choices are called form layouts in Accounting Plus.

The ContinuousFeed Check form layout allows you to print checks on connected sheets of check forms. One check form is followed by one check stub.

The Laser Check form layout allows you to print checks one page at a time on a laser printer. The Laser Check form layout is also set up so two check stub forms are printed after the check form.(See Tips for customizing checks to learn more about customizing your checks and check stubs.)

You can also customize the look of your printed checks. See To customize the check form for detailed information about customizing your printed forms.

Click below for the step-by-step procedure:

To print checks

To print a single check

Keyword: write check

Spend Money Overview