Vehicle Mileage does not show up in balance sheet

[jayjohnson]

I entered my business related mileage expenses as described in the "“tracking vehicle mileage” Help. I used the Company | Enter Vehicle Mileage menu item for that.

Now I can generate a nice report, Mileage by Vehicle Detail, but for some reason I can't see these expenses in the balance sheet or even the Automobile Expense account.

What did I do wrong?

Now that I look at Automobile Expense account I see that it's empty. How do I make my vehicle mileage entries show up in the Automobile Expense account?

What did I miss?

Thanks,
Jay

[Joe Williams]

The vehicle mileage tracking does not cause the entry of expenses. It is designed to give you the total mileage by job and a total at areport at year end for tax purpose.
Per QB Help:
If you plan to charge your customers for your mileage expenses, you must create a service item or an 'other charge' item for the mileage expense. You can use either item type, depending on how you like to set up your expenses in QuickBooks.

[jayjohnson]

Joe, thank you for your help.

Originally Posted by Joe Williams

The vehicle mileage tracking does not cause the entry of expenses. It is designed to give you the total mileage by job and a total a report at year end for tax purpose.

It seems to me strange that the IRS would recognize mileage as an expense, but QuickBooks will not. I know that sometimes there differences between how IRS vs. Accountants view things (for example, depreciation), but I didn't know that this exists in regard to mileage as well.

Your reply prompted me to re-read the relevant part in QuickBooks' help:

You can use the mileage information for tax deductions for your vehicles, and to bill customers for mileage expenses. You cannot use vehicle mileage tracking to reimburse your employees for mileage.

I thought that if QuickBooks allows me to use the mileage information for tax deductions, then it can also associate it with an account (that in turn can be associated with a tax line). I guess I was mistaken.

Originally Posted by Joe Williams

If you plan to charge your customers for your mileage expenses, you must create a service item or an 'other charge' item for the mileage expense. You can use either item type, depending on how you like to set up your expenses in QuickBooks.

My current business operation is simple enough that I don't need this feature yet. Thanks for the tip - I may use it in the future.

Thanks,
Jay

[lisa_mn]

To record an expense you can either actually write yourself a check for the mileage reimbursement (based on the miles you have tracked)

Or you can make a journal entry, debiting mileage expense and crediting owners capital contributions or paid in capital, depending on what type of entity you are.

Now all of this presumes that the business does not own the vehicle and that you personally are paying all the vehicle expenses.