Use 2140 and rename it so you know whose credit card it is.  Create 2142 and 2144 for the other two cards.  If you get a separate statement, use a separate G/L account (you can then reconcile similar to a bank account if every entry is posted to the books).

In the credit card used setup, create three cards, one for each statement.

I never use the expense account associated with the Credit card used setup, only the Payable account.  I post general journal or purchase invoice entries to update the account with all the ancillary charges.  The Expense account setup posts on cash basis accounting and I prefer accrual.

The original setup in the chart of the 3 or 4 credit card expense accounts are usually for the discounts incurred when you accept credit card payments from customers so you can keep track of them.  You can use any account you wish.  I do separate my credit card expenses from regular bank account expenses.

In the purchase invoice you have indicated you will use Pay Later.  There is nothing wrong with this.  You are creating more work by taking time to do the extra entry, when you can change Pay Later to Paid by "whichever VISA is being used today".  Your choice, to do it the way you feel comfortable.  In both cases, the information is in the vendor history.

However, I don't understand your New steps question 3.  If you are paying by credit card, there is no bank involved.

LaChapa said:

This is where I get confused, how do I reconcile the Visa Statement?

I would assume it would NOT be from Bank Account since by using pay by VISA I am technically creating a VISA Bill that will eventually be paid by the BANK once I reconcile the Visa Statement. 

Reconcile a credit card the same way you reconcile a bank account.  Setup is the same, etc.  The only issue is that Deposits are payments made to the card and Withdrawals are the purchase charges you make to the card.

I'm not sure I understand the rest of this comment.  What would not be from a bank account?  Whether you make a credit card payment is independent of whether you reconcile.

You need to open the sample file and play or take a copy of your file and call it CreditCardTesting and just set it up and play with it.  Once you see how it works, then take the setup and put it into your live file.

Hope this helps

what i mean by bank account is:
when i make a purchase with the credit card, it obviously does not come out of my bank account yet... I have to wait for the visa statement to pay the visa.
so if i setup 3 visa account (2140, 2142 and 2144) and add 3 credit cards to the "cc used" (AAA, BBB and CCC) then when I chose "pay by visa AAA" that amount will now be sitting in A/P (2140, 2142 or 2144) and when I get the Visa Statement, I will pay that account by "bank" like any other bill... am I understanding this correctly?
Am I missing a step?

Another question, I just created 3 credit cards account, 2140, 2142 and 2144. 2140 was orginally there as a liability account. Was it setup properly?

When you make a payment to credit card, you can cut a cheque from Payment, changing the transaction from Pay Purchase Invoices to Pay Credit Card Bill.  The select the correct credit card you are paying.  This allows you to cut a cheque if you mail cheques, or pay via website transfer if you like.  Just make sure the bank account is the correct bank account.  Make sure you change the cheque number if you are not cutting a cheques.  I use the confirmation number when transferring on line.

LaChapa said:

Another question, I just created 3 credit cards account, 2140, 2142 and 2144. 2140 was orginally there as a liability account. Was it setup properly?

Unfortunately there is no way for me to tell.  I didn't see the settings before you changed them.  Can you see each credit card in the Paid By drop-down under Purchases and Payments?

In the default template, 2140 is set up as a Credit Card payable now but you or someone else using the system could have changed it.

ok I believe I got this correct. I set the cards and it gives me the option of pay by credit card AAA, or BBB etc.
When I select that option then the amount owing is sitting in Credit Card payable which i will pay online when i get the statement (i will use the Pay Credit Card option)
my question is, it gives me the option to do the credit card reconciliation, is it that important? if so, how do I set it up?
i have posted one cc transaction to see if i was hitting the correct accounts and it looks great but does not show up if I go in the Credit Card Reconciliation screen.

If they are full business cards and all purchases are business, then you can activate the reconciliation the same way as a bank rec, through the Reconciliation tab of the chart of accounts ledger.  Then go to the Account Reconciliation module and finish the setup just like a bank rec.

If there are a lot of personal purchases that do not get entered on the books, then I would still review the credit card statement with what has been entered in the books to make sure nothing is missed.

LaChapa said:

...it gives me the option to do the credit card reconciliation, is it that important?

Protect your money!

this is the amount that should show up when i open the reconciliation as i have the box selected but there is nothing showing up if i open the reconciliation.   I Assume it has to do with the Set UP... button but I dont know what the boxes mean. see  below.  what are the purpose of these boxes? I do not think that is why i do not see my 10.45 as that 10.45 is for an expense that has nothing to do with the categories below (its a fee charged by Cortex (online invoicing program to bill third parties)).

Sorry, I only said to check the box for reconciliation. I never use the setup button. Once the check mark is in the box, open the Reconciliation module from the Banking area of the Home Screen. Then follow the prompts to enter the start and end dates from your credit card statement you are trying to reconcile, the opening and closing balances from your credit card statement you are trying to reconcile and then select any outstanding entries in your system that did not clear the statement from the previous period. This process is the same as a bank rec. setup.

The Setup button in the image you are referring is so you can post extraneous items that appear on your statement. People use this area of things like annual fees, monthly interest owing, etc. However, I do not use it because these always post after the reconciliation is done during the posting process. I prefer to see everything on the screen that I am clearing so I know it was posted properly before I complete my reconciliation. It's not like it doesn't work, but I just prefer to reconcile when I reconcile, I don't prefer to post while reconciling.

ok perfect that is what i thought ... no need to touch that setup button but this is the problem:

i open the reconciliation module

i enter the start and end date

the opening balance... i would assume its 0 since I never used these accounts before

the closing balance which would be 10.45 (I obviously dont have the visa statement yet so I am playing with the dates and amounts to ensure im setup properly)

but there are NO transactions showing up... so i click on "add prior outstanding"

There is NOTHING to add!! I have posted a visa transaction of 10.45 wich shows in visa payable. so where is it?

Ok, so I will go back to what I had said in my previous message.  

Richard S. Ridings said:

...enter the start and end dates from your credit card statement you are trying to reconcile...

You are going to find that it is hard reconcile the credit card statement you are trying to reconcile if you don't have the credit card statement.  In fact, it's even harder to set it up for reconciliation.

So for now, when you open the Add Prior Outstanding Transactions dialog, you will have to go with the assumption that you do not have any, correct?  So click Ok without adding anything to the Outstanding Transaction list and see if you can find your $10.45 in the current transactions.

Ok wow you are correct, once i clicked ok (without adding any prior outstanding transactions) the transaction I was looking for just appeared!!! perfect that is all i wanted, I only wanted to do this BEFORE i got my statement to ensure i had set it up properly (i didnt want to keep posting to the credit card account if it wasnt setup properly). Now i will keep using the credit card feature and once i get my statement i will attempt to do the reconciliation. Sorry for the back and forth, for someone that never had to setup such a thing it is NOT user friendly (there was no way for me to know that the transaction would popup AFTER). Thank you so much!!

I've been busy this week and couldn't take the time to write out everything. In the manual I taught from, it was about 12 pages with images and explanation of doing a first reconciliation. I also wanted you to do a bit of the logic on your own. Every entry you make to an account that you may ultimately want to reconcile will show up even if you decide to set up your reconciliation after month 5 or 6 or 7.

The concepts are that you can start your reconciliation in Sage 50 years after you start your business. You can do the reconciliation manually for three or five or seven years and then start with last month's statement to do the reconciliation on the program.

From the previous period, there may be amounts in your books from a period prior to the one you are starting on the program, that have not yet cleared the statement. You may post it on Jan 30 because it was purchased that date, but the credit card company will wait until after the weekend to put it on your credit card statement. So it will not show on the statement until Feb. If you are starting to set up the Feb statement for reconciliation, it will not reconcile unless you indicate the Jan 30 entry as an outstanding entry, then it will show with the current transactions and you can clear it properly.

Hope this helps

yes i understand that it makes sense ... i was just not understanding why there was NO transaction at all when there should have been one of 10.45 dated Feb 01, 2016. Once i opened the "add prior outstanding box" and hit OK to close the box (even if there was NOTHING PRIOR to add) then the missing transaction just appeared. Since I didn't know it would do that, every time i went in that "add prior outstanding box" and saw NOTHING, instead of hitting the OK button i would just CANCEL out so the transaction I was looking for didn't appear, the screen would still be GREY with NO transaction. Once I hit the OK button then the screen turned Normal and the transaction was there. So if anyone as new as me has the same problem, just hit the OK button :)