You should add new accounts as your business grows and changes. For example, you may need to add one or more of the following:
Income accounts to track new sources of income.
Expense accounts to track new types of expenses.
Bank accounts when you open new checking, savings, or money market accounts at your local bank.
Credit card accounts when you acquire new credit cards.
Other kinds of balance sheet accounts to track specific assets, liabilities, or equity. For example, you may need to add a fixed asset account to track the depreciation of a new equipment purchase, a long term liability account to track a business loan, or an equity account to track the investment from a new business partner.
From the Lists menu, choose Chart of Accounts.
From the Account menu button, choose New.
In the New Account window, choose the type of account from the Type drop-down list.
Enter the account's name in the Name field.
If you use account numbers, enter the account's number in the Number field.
What to do if there is no Number field
If the Number field doesn't appear, it means that account numbering is turned off in QuickBooks.
To turn on account numbering
From the Edit menu, choose Preferences.
In the Preferences window, select Accounting from the scroll box.
Click the Company Preferences tab.
Select the "Use account numbers" checkbox.
Click OK.
(Optional) Enter a short description of the account in the Description field.
(Optional) Enter a bank or credit card number for this account.
If you want to make this account a subaccount of another account, select the "Subaccount of" checkbox. From the drop-down list, select the account that will be the higher-level account for this subaccount.
Why use subaccounts?
When an account in your chart of accounts seems to cover too much, you can divide the account into one or more subaccounts. Subaccounts let you track several related types of income or expenses independently yet keep them all under the "umbrella" of a single parent account.
In your chart of accounts, each subaccount appears indented immediately below its parent account. If the subaccount is a balance sheet account, QuickBooks includes its balance in the balance of the parent account. When you open the register of the parent account, the register shows all the transactions in the subaccounts.
For example, if your business has substantial advertising expenses, you might decide to divide your Advertising expense account into several subaccounts, such as Newspaper Ads, Signs, Yellow Pages Listing, and Direct Mailings. Your chart of accounts shows these accounts as follows:
Advertising
Direct Mailings
Newspaper Ads
Signs
Yellow Pages Listing
Your reports will now show subtotals for the various ways that you advertise as well as the total for all of your advertising.
Important: To avoid duplication in your income tax reports, do not associate both the parent account and subaccounts to tax lines. To get the most detail in your reports, associate the subaccounts to tax lines instead of the parent account. To associate or disassociate a tax line for an account, use the Tax Line drop-down list in the New Account or Edit Account window. Choose the appropriate tax line or
(For income and expense accounts) From the Tax Line drop-down list, choose the appropriate tax line or
Restriction regarding balance sheet accounts
If you are a sole proprietor. We recommend that you assign tax lines only to income and expense accounts.
If you are a Corporation or Partnership. Most balance sheet accounts are preassigned. For accounts that are not preassigned, select the appropriate tax line from the list that is supplied.
What if the list of tax lines is missing?
If you didn't select an income tax form when setting up your company in QuickBooks, the Tax Line drop-down list doesn't appear for you to select a form or schedule.
From the Company menu, choose Company Info.
From the Income Tax Form Used list, select how your company is set up.
Click OK.
A Tax Line list of forms and schedules should now appear when you're adding or editing accounts.
(For balance sheet accounts) Enter an opening balance based on the account's balance as of your QuickBooks start date. If you're not sure of the balance, you can leave the field blank and enter the information later.
If the account is brand new
Important: If the account is brand new, leave the opening balance at zero. Its opening balance will be created when you transfer funds from the appropriate account to fund this account. For example, if you create a new savings account using $500 from your checking account, enter a check for $500 and assign the transaction to the new savings account in the detail area of the check.
If the account is an A/R or A/P account
If the account is an Accounts Receivable (A/R) account or an Accounts Payable (A/P) account, QuickBooks does not ask for an opening balance. Instead, you enter an opening balance for each individual customer or vendor when you set up their records in QuickBooks.
Related topics
(For expense accounts only) To track reimbursed expenses as income, select the "Track reimbursed expenses in:" option, and then choose the appropriate income account from the Income Account drop-down list. If this option is not visible, you must reset your preferences for sales and customers.
Set preferences for sales and customers
From the Edit menu, choose Preferences.
In the Preferences window, select the Sales & Customers icon.
Click the Company Preferences tab.
Set the preferences to suit your needs. Press F1 for specific information about any of the preferences you see.
Click OK.
Record your information about the new account.
Click Next to record and enter another.Click OK to record but close the window.