Quicken categories -> _separate_ schedule C's ??

Greetings,

I'm a veteran Quicken and Turbotax user with over 10 years into the cult. Sometimes, it seems Quicken runs my life. It's sad. LOL. :-) But I need some advice!

I find myself now having two small side businesses that require separate schedule C's when tax time comes. I'm trying to minimize the manual massaging needed when populating these schedule C's with the various expenses. I have a single personal checking account into which the income of these businesses flows, and I use my personal credit card to handle nearly all the expenses, but I use categories and invoices to track income and expenses for each business into nifty little separate categories.

The problem: Quicken 2004 Premier Home & Business that I'm using doesn't seem to have a notion of separate schedule C's. While I can set up categories to flow to a (single) schedule C line item of business expenses, there doesn't appear to be a way to separate businessA expenses to go to businessA's schedule C and BusinessB's expenses flowing to BusinessB's schedule C.

What version of Quicken (if any) supports the notion of multiple schedule C's? Or are there any clever workarounds? Or would Quickbooks potentially make this easier (without sacrificing the simplicity of tracking with my personal checking account and credit card for business income and expenses)?

Thanks so much for any shared experience.

Best Regards,

Reply to
Todd H.
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Have you tried using a separate class for each business - and assign 'Copy No.s' to each class. e.g., Bus_A w/ copy #1, Bus_B w/ copy #2.

This works for multiple rental properties: routes income/expense items to separate copies of Sched E.

Reply to
JM

First, thanks for your response!

Hrmm. I certainly haven't!

I searched on "class" in the help and lo and behold, I've just found the Tools>class list option. As you might suspect mine is empty! LOL. This may be exactly the thing I've been looking for.

Are "copy numbers" a notion that's part of classes?

Ooh... nice. If you can give me a few more nudges where to find this in the program, I'd be greatly appreciative!

Best Regards,

Reply to
Todd H.

You can create new classes by entering in the class list or by simply appending to the category - e.g., Auto:Fuel/Bus_A - you get a pop-up window if this is a new class.

Copy Numbers - While creating a new class, you will get a pop-up window which allows you to enter a Description [if needed] and a Copy Number [default is blank]. You can also go to the Class List and do an edit to enter or change the copy number.

You can now use a common set of business related categories and the class designation will differentiate between the businesses.

Can run Class reports for each business or an itemized category report, subtotaled by class, on so on...

QW's Tax Summary report will also give you separate subtotals for each class [business].

Reply to
JM

Holy crap. How did I live without this?

Wow--that's a HELL of lot cleaner than what I'd been doing creating categories bussinessAincome businessAOfficeExpense etc.

Thanks so much for teaching me about this class functionality.

Best Regards,

Reply to
Todd H.

Since most business owners only file 1 schedule C you might check with an accountant as to whether or not you need to be doing this extra work.

Some other things to consider: Are these 2 separate companies with separate FEINs or 2 different businesses with the same FEIN? Sole Proprietor, LLC or Corp? Also, if these are true businesses they probably need to have their own business checking account and keep your personal finances out of the picture. Again, something you should check with an accountant about. Heaven forbid, you get audited and business deductions are disallowed because of the co-mingling of funds (bus vs personal).

Reply to
Laura

Talked with my preparer (haven't gotten an audience with the cpa grr) and because the two side businesses are very different (one's computer IT related, and the other entertainment related) the two schedule C's I did last year (not bein able to invsiion squashing them together under one business description and activity code) were something they're continuing with this year.

If however, I could get it down to one schedule C, hell I'd be happier!

Both are sole proprietor, no EIN, cash method. 1099-MISC's I get come to my own SSN.

Tis a worthy thing I'll look more into.

Am I fooling myself thinking that excellent record keeping of expenses charged on a personal charge card and business income deposited into a personal checking acount should be enough? Of course it's best to ask my CPA about that for my specific situation, but if there are horror stories out there about what the IRS has used to disallow stuff during an audit, I'm all ears.

Best Regards,

Reply to
Todd H.

My wife and I file (2) sched C's and (4) sched E's and run everything through our personal checking account. My CPA has never even hinted at a possible problem doing this. We are scroupulous about record keeping and use Quicken categories and classes to separate things at tax time.

Reply to
The Streets

You should be okay since it is basically your income anyway. The rules change when you are a Corporation owner.

Reply to
Laura

Ahhh. Yeah, that makes sense since that's essentially another "person." 8-)

So much to know!

Reply to
Todd H.

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