Often transactions are lumped into the "Miscellaneous" Expense account because it is an easy catch-all for unusual expenses. However, it dilutes the accuracy of your reporting. By reapplying miscellaneous-expense transactions to the correct account, you get a better reflection of your business expenses.

In the Profit and Loss report below, we see a "Miscellaneous" expense amount of $294.52.

That amount appears because we have applied payments to a "Miscellaneous" expense account in the Chart of Accounts. In order to correct this, you should review where the money that was paid out was actually spent.

Procedure:

1) Generate a Profit and Loss report for the current fiscal year.

2) QuickZoom into the "Miscellaneous" expense account transactions in your Profit and Loss report. Refer to page 14 for the procedure to QuickZoom and edit transactions. You can also see the detail by doing a QuickReport in your Chart of Accounts. (Make sure you select the correct date range.)

3) Your check or bill will open up like this. Methodically, one by one, QuickZoom onto each check or bill and edit it.

4) Your check should be reapplied to the correct account (see page 14 for instructions on how to reapply transactions). In the check below, made out to Realistic Graphics, a choice was not made whether to enter the expense account as "Advertising", "Supplies: Office", or "Printing & Copies", so the easy way out was to post it to the "Miscellaneous" expense account.

5) By opening the Vendor list and creating a QuickReport for all dates for Realistic Graphics, we can review to which expense account previous transactions have been applied. In the example below, we determine that the check to Stanley Simmons should be applied to the "Advertising" expense account.

6) In the example below, the check was made out to an employee to reimburse him for out-of-pocket expenses. It should be applied to the expense account "Postage", as the expense was originally incurred for that purpose.

7) In the example below, the check was made out to a customer to refund a purchase. It is reversing the income, therefore it should be applied to "Refunds & Allowances", which is an income account. It will show up on your Profit and Loss report as negative income.

8) After you have emptied the transactions from the "Miscellaneous" expense account, delete it from your Chart of Accounts. Refer to page 12 for the procedure to delete accounts.

Frequently transactions land up in a "Miscellaneous" expense account as a result of indecision. If you are not sure to which account a transaction should be applied, create a Vendor QuickReport and look in the vendor history for clues, or review the original purchase documents. That will help your data to be consistent and your reports to be kept accurate.