Move transactions from personal to business

Carey_S

I'm new to Wave and am totally clueless when it comes to accounting (probably shouldn't be doing my own books!). I've just linked up my bank account to my personal profile on Wave and am now trying to transfer over the various business expenses that I've incurred on my personal bank account. How do I do this? I've searched for articles but none of them as been particularly helpful. I'm a total novice.

Alexia

Hi @Carey_S. Welcome to Wave! We're happy to have you!

We're actually working on making that process a little easier, so you won't be using the method I'll give you today forever. Here's how you would handle an expense.

It takes a few steps, but it'll get you to where you need to be. If you're not entering a receipt, you can also just create the expense manually.

How are you liking Wave so far? Let me know if there's any way I can make your experience as a new user easier.

hshokunbi

Hi Alexia,

In your last comment you mentioned Wave was working on an easier process for handling business expenses with a personal bank account.

Any new updates on this?

Thank you in advance,

Halid

Ryan_W

Hey @hshokunbi ,

Thanks for checking in! There aren't any updates yet, unfortunately, although it's something that we're still working on adding soon. Keep an eye out for it in-app!

graeort

Hi. I recall asking about this a few years ago. I really need to be able to this in a bulk manner. Is it possible via a spreadsheet upload? or a zapier workflow?

JamieD

Hey @graeort. All you would need to do in this particular situation (if you have transaction data within your Personal account in Wave) is essentially export the data, then import it into the business account. You can do this by going to your Settings > Others > Data Export. From here, you can export the transaction in either CSV or Excel format (I recommend choosing CSV). Once this is complete, you can then just upload the CSV that you've downloaded as a bank statement under the Transactions page in Wave. This workaround will allow for the transaction data in your Personal account to be transferred to the Business account in Wave.

Sarah_S

Hi, I'm new to this too & need to do something similar. Am using single bank account for both personal/business expenses (and have done for the last 15 years or so), but not sure whether to connect that single account to either Personal or Business profiles in Wave (or even perhaps both?) to make this work in the most effective way. Have seen reference to Move to Personal in some help files but not others (and I don't seem to have that option anyway); am also a bit concerned about the potential new developments described in this thread and which might affect this position further.

In the same vein, if I connect the same account to both _P & B profiles, is there then a way to deal with the corresponding transaction on the Personal side - since the transaction details will also appear there - rather than entering the whole thing again as a journal entry after categorising the transaction (as suggested in the help files) using the _Owner Investment/Drawings category ... Or have I missed the point completely? Don't want to start this process by heading off down the wrong road at the outset!!!

Ryan_W

Hey @Sarah_S

There's a bit to unpack here, so I appreciate you bearing with me! First off, the bank connection you set up will only direct your bank account transactions to one profile at a time (either Personal or your Business profile). With that in mind, you're better off directing your bank connection to the business you've set up in Wave. Then, you can account for personal vs. business transactions by following the steps in the bottom part of this article: https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/208622836-Handling-business-expenses-with-a-personal-bank-account

Ideally, you'd want to have two separate bank accounts, but the article does address what to do if your personal and business transactions all come from the same account. The Move to Personal feature was a part of our Classic accounting platform, so chances are you're using the newest version which doesn't include that as an option, so I hope that clears that up; as long as you're logged into your Wave account while browsing our Help Center, you should see the right articles that match up with your version.

Since you can't connect an account to both personal and business profiles, your last point doesn't quite apply; however you have the right idea for how to account for these transactions! They will need to be accounted for as journal entries in both business and personal if you're doing both types of transactions from the same bank account.

I hope that helps!

EricAtMeditateBetter

It is a very thorough an educational response. Unfortunately, it doesn't help! Your response was great, but the platform lacks a feature I'll need to make use of it.

First, it was helpful to know that a bank account can be connected to only one Wave account. That's one of the things I was wondering about. Thanks for that.

But unless transactions marked as "personal" in the business account actually move to the personal account, the system will be a bit too unwieldy to use.

But if I can't connect that bank account to both Wave accounts, there is nowhere to move it to. Alas.

What I would like to see is this:

• Bank accounts that are dedicated for a particular business are set up to connect to that business.
• Bank accounts that are used for personal and business transactions can be connected to multiple Wave accounts.
• All uncategorized transactions appear in each Wave account the bank account is connected to.
• When viewing an uncategorized transaction, options are to categorize it, or move it to one of the other connected accounts.
• "Moving" a transaction makes it appear in the designated Wave account, and nowhere else.
• The transaction can then be categorized in the Wave account where it appears.