Bookkeeping Tips • October 29, 2026 • by Zachariah Smiley
Every deposit that lands in your business checking account looks like income at first glance, but some of it isn't. Loan proceeds, a transfer from your own savings, and a refund from a vendor all increase your bank balance without increasing what your business actually earned.
In QuickBooks Online, post each one where it belongs. Record a transfer as a transfer between accounts, post loan proceeds against the loan liability — not sales — and match a refund back to the original expense. If you categorize them as income, your Profit & Loss overstates revenue.
That matters at tax time, and it matters every month in between. Inflated income can mean paying tax on money you never earned and making decisions off numbers that aren't real. A quick review of this week's deposits, as part of your monthly reconciliation, keeps the story your books tell an honest one.
This is exactly the kind of thing I clean up and keep clean for Wichita small businesses — catch-up projects and monthly bookkeeping, quoted flat after a free look at your books.