Prepaid expense amortization in QuickBooks Online

A year of insurance or software paid up front is a prepaid expense: an asset that you expense month by month as you use it. Intuit’s What are prepaid expenses and amortization? gives the entries: Debit Prepaid expenses and Credit the bank when you pay; then each month Debit the expense and Credit Prepaid expenses. Its tip for not forgetting: “Set up a recurring journal entry to automate the amortization.”

Intuit is adding its own tool. In June 2026 a QuickBooks Team reply in the community described a Prepaid expenses schedule screen whose journal entries show Pending and post automatically on their dates. We haven’t found which plans have it. Check your QuickBooks Online company first: if you have that screen and it fits, use it.

The manual way

Code the bill or payment to a Prepaid Expenses asset account.
At each month-end, post a journal entry: Debit the expense, Credit Prepaid Expenses, for that month’s share.
Optional: make it recurring when the amount is the same each month. Recurring transactions are only in Essentials, Plus and Advanced, so on Simple Start each entry is typed by hand (Intuit: plan feature limits).
Keep a spreadsheet of what makes up the Prepaid Expenses balance and tie it to the balance sheet.

What Periodline does

One row per bill of type Prepaid expense: reference, vendor, amount, service start and end dates, the expense account and the prepaid account.
Daily, equal monthly or monthly by days, in cents, with the rounding in the last month so the schedule adds up to the bill.
Changes and cancellations: a new amount from a date re-spreads what is left; a cancellation stops the schedule, with the rest refunded or released to expense that month.
The same file can hold deferred revenue, accrued expenses and fixed assets, so one run makes one entry per month-end for all of them.
A posting record (CSV) that holds, per line, the month posted up to and what remains, so a rerun never posts the same month twice. If a line changes after months were posted, the difference is posted once as a catch-up adjustment that you confirm first.
A working paper in Excel and PDF: each balance sheet account rolled forward, next to the QuickBooks balance you type in, and the difference.
Runs in your browser. Your schedules are not uploaded, and Periodline never connects to QuickBooks.

To import, in QuickBooks Online go to Settings ⚙, then Import data, then Journal entries, choose the file and map the columns when QuickBooks asks. See the import format.

What it doesn’t do

It doesn’t read bills from QuickBooks or post anything; you list them in the template and import the file.
Home currency only.

Try it on your own schedule. Free, no account or sign-up, nothing uploaded. The free plan covers one company: every line’s schedule and balances on screen, and the journal entry file, posting record and working paper for 3 lines. Standard ($19 per month or $190 per year) covers every line for up to 3 companies; Practice ($49 per month) covers unlimited companies: see pricing.

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Periodline is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Intuit. QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. This guide was checked against the linked sources on 27 October 2026; Intuit changes its product, so check the current Intuit help article if a menu looks different.