Purchase category?

Hi My first time of using Quickfile and I want to specify my different purchases under appropriate headings is there a way I can add to the existing list as there is nothing suitable at the moment

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You can add to the list by creating new nominal accounts in the purchases, direct expenses or overheads categories as appropriate (the “create new nominal account” button at the top of the chart of accounts report page). But if you give us an idea of what sort of purchases you’re talking about we can suggest which of the standard categories would be the best fit. You don’t generally need to separate each type of purchase into its own nominal - anything you buy to resell, for example, can go under “general purchases”.

This may help:

Adding a new nominal account in QuickFile

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Hi, I’m a driving instructor. I regularly need to book driving tests for students and pay the DSA for it. Which standard Category would be best?

It feels like a cost of sales thing rather than overheads, since each booking relates to one specific sale (i.e. one student), so I’d say either general purchases or create a new code for it under the cost of sales section. If you charge the cost directly back to the student you could use the expense rebilling feature for that and simply contra the item in your sales invoice to the same code as the original purchase so it doesn’t figure in your accounts at all, and it’s as if the student had booked and paid for the test directly themselves.

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That sounds really cool Ian, as a bit (well a lot) of a newbie, any pointers to the how to do the rebilling part please, as that sounds exactly what I want to do .


Hi @HelenW

You can find out more about the rebilling feature in our guide.

As @ian_roberts suggests, you can use this to effectively cancel the payment showing on your account reports (such as your profit and loss). Providing you have no mark up added, you will see an option to ‘contra-invoice’ the expense, which posts it to the same purchase and in effect cancels them out.

Many thanks. Can this also be used where for example, I’ve used a credit card to pay for something, used personal credit card for fuel for example, where I’ve forgotten my business card?

I assume I also need to work out which student that I’ve booked the test for.

In that case you don’t need to do any rebilling, you’d just log the purchase as normal but mark it as paid from the proprietor drawings account (sole trader) or director’s loan (ltd company).

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