How does FlexBooks handle Other Payment Methods?

How does FlexBooks handle Payment Methods other than Credit Card, Cash, or Check?

Outside of Credit Card, Cash, or Check – MindBody comes with several other default Payment Methods (for example 'Comp/Guest' and 'Other') and also has the ability to create custom Payment Methods (for example 'Groupon' or 'Perkville'). These payment methods can be considered either cash or cash equivalents and so FlexBooks records them as current assets in QuickBooks Online.

What is "Comp/Guest"?

Comp/Guest is a Payment Method in MBO meant for giving client free services or products. MBO will record the income from the sale even though no funds are collected in real life.

What is "Other"?

"Other" is a Payment Method in MBO to be used for anything. MBO still records the income from the sale, even though no funds are collected in real life.

How does FlexBooks Handle "Comp/Guest", "Other", and any other custom MBO Payment Method?

Whenever you make a sale in MBO using "Comp/Guest", "Other", or another custom Payment Method, in QuickBooks Online, FlexBooks will:

Create an Other Current Asset account in the name of that Payment Method (if it doesn't already exist in your Chart of Accounts)
Create a Sales Receipt that:
- Record the income from the sale to the appropriate Income Account (which will show on the Profit & Loss report)
- Deposit the funds to the Other Current Asset account with the name of the payment method (which will show on the Balance Sheet)

How do I account for the income from these other payment methods?

If the payment method is a cash equivalent (i.e. Comp/Guest, Other, Groupon, Perkville) this is definitely a question for your tax account and it will depend on what the payment method is/how it can be converted to cash.

What if my custom payment method is real money through Mindbody Payments?

Some custom payment methods are not cash equivalents at all.

If you have renamed your card tender, or you take bank payments under a name such as EFT, PAD, ACH or Direct Debit, that money is processed by Mindbody Payments and arrives in your normal Mindbody payout alongside your card sales. It is real money and it reaches your bank the same way everything else does.

FlexBooks still sends those sales to an Other Current Asset account named after the payment method, because it recognises card tenders by name and your name is not one it knows.

If you are using a clearing account, that matters. Your Credit Card Processor account will be short by these amounts every month, your fee entry will never square it, and no amount of care at month end will fix it, because the money you are looking for is sitting in a different account entirely.

What to do for now: move those amounts into your Credit Card Processor account as part of your month end, the same way you would any other transfer between accounts. Tell us which payment methods you use and we will confirm which of yours are affected. We are working on handling this for you automatically.

If your payment method is a bank debit rather than a card, also read What Happens When an EFT or Bank Payment Fails?, because bank payments can fail days after the sale and need watching for a second reason.

How can I remove the income from Comp/Guest from my Profit & Loss report?

So the appropriate way to do this is to recognize the income, then remove the income using a contra-income account. That way your P&L shows you the detail of what type of thing was "Sold", then shows you the detail of what type of discount was discounted. By doing this you're not recording any income but you also get detail into what's really happening.

EXAMPLE P&L:

--- Product 1 +$50

--- Product 2 +$75

--- Product 3 +$25

--- Comp/Guest -$150

TOTAL INCOME 0

In order to do this, all you'd need to do is do a monthly Journal Entry where you move all "Comp/Guest" Assets to a "Comp/Guest" contra-income account.

How can I see when I've used "Comp/Guest", "Other", or any custom payment method in MBO?

In MBO, click on the Reports tab, then the Sales tab on the left.
Click on the Sales report
Set the date range to your preference.
In the Payment Method filter, uncheck "All Payment Methods", then check the Payment Method(s) you'd like to see
Click Go.