How to record business expenses paid from personal accounts?

Question

Sometimes I have to pay for business expenses from my personal accounts. What is a good practice for administering these types of transactions? What should I name the account? What system should I use to keep track of reimbursed / not reimbursed amounts?

Answer 1

(Assuming you usually do business from a business* account and this is just for occasional payments from private* account)

I reimburse myself. Just like I reimburse myself after business travel with my own car, or after buying, say, office supplies by cash from my private purse.

• Write a reimbursement request
• wire the money to my private account
• Book keeping: put both the reimbursement request and the receipt for the bought goods into the business books:
  • goods receipt for booking expense account -> liability
    e.g. office supplies -> liabilities to myself
  • reimbursement request for booking liability / business bank account,
    e.g. liabilities to myself -> bank

* "Business" and "private" can be labels for two of your accounts or accounts owned by you personally and your business, respectively - the distinction doesn't matter for this question:
Although here (Germany), if your business is of a type that is not considered distinct from your private wealth then reimbursing yourself is not necessary according to tax law. But it will make book keeping more simple if you clearly separate business from private, and to do that again you reimburse yourself.