Bookkeeping: How Do I Split Personal and Business Expenses?

[Jeff Lawlor]

I have an ADU next to my primary residence and often buy things for both units. I'm using Stessa and looking for the right way to record only the business expenses.

Here's what I'm doing:

1. Enter an inbound "owner contributions" transaction for the personal expense amount
2. Enter a transaction for the full invoice amount
3. Split the transaction- one goes into the appropriate spending category. The other goes to "owner contributions" in a negative amount- exactly negating the positive owner transfer in step 1

Am I doing this right? If not, what should I do instead?

Thanks,
Jeff

[Bruce Woodruff]

Get a separate debit card, credit card, and checking account and pay for each property out of it's specific account. On the services/products that are used by both, just pay with the larger house account and have the smaller house write a check as a 'pay-back'.