Keeping your bookkeeping records clean doesn’t have to be complicated. When you transfer funds from one account to another, it shouldn’t be listed as an expense or income. It’s simply a transfer. This tutorial will show you the steps to properly mark transfers of funds using WAVE Accounting.

How to Properly Mark Transfers in WAVE

When you tell PayPal to withdraw money from your PayPal account and deposit it into your bank account, it can take 3-5  business days for the transaction to complete.

In Wave, you’ll probably see the Transfer Out from PayPal before you see the deposit into your bank account. (These instructions will work with any accounts for which you are transferring funds, not just PayPal.)

Once both transactions appear in your Transactions window in Wave, you can properly match them up.

1.  Locate your 2 transactions

The deposit or the account you are transferring to will show up as Uncategorized Income. The transaction from the account you are transferring from will be considered an Uncategorized Expense. If these were left unmatched, your Income and Expenses would not be accurate.

2.  Click the checkbox on the left for both of the matching transactions

How close together they are in your list will depend on the number of transactions you have in your Transactions window. Normally, since they are usually only a few days apart, you can locate them quickly.

3.  Click the Transfer button

It may take a second or two but it will put the two transactions next to each other and you’ll notice that the Description and the Category will be updated to say Transfer To… and Transfer From…

That’s it. When you go back into your Dashboard, you’ll notice that your income an expense totals will be updated and no longer showing the transfer amount in the totals.

Properly mark transfers and you’ll be one step closer to keeping your bookkeeping clean and you’ll be able to run more accurate reports for your business.

Would you like more tutorials? Share in the comments if there is something I can help you learn.