Owner money

What owner money is

Owner money is money that moves between you and the business because you own it: what you put in, lend, are paid back and take out. None of it is income, and none of it is a cost, so it never changes your profit. It changes the business's bank account, and either its equity (what the business is worth to you as its owner) or a liability (what the business owes you).

It all lives on Owner, under People in the sidebar. Each kind is named the way an accountant names it for how your business files its taxes, set in Settings → Business (see Business tax structure). Try each one:

Named for

Owner money

Costs, for contrast

You

The corporation

Capital contribution

Money you put into the corporation as its owner, not as a loan.

Profit: No change: not income, not a cost
Bank account: Up
Equity: Up · Capital contributions

Recorded on: Owner, or a deposit on a statement.

Pick one to see which way the money goes and what it changes. The accounts are the ones in the General Ledger.

The kinds

The first name is a sole proprietor's (and a partnership's); a corporation's follows.

Owner contribution (Capital contribution for an S or C corporation): money you put into the business from your own funds, not as a loan. It adds to equity.
Loan from owner (Shareholder loan): money you lent the business. It owes it back to you, so it's a liability. A sole proprietor can't lend to their own business, so a sole proprietor isn't offered loans.
Loan repaid to owner (Shareholder loan repayment): the business paying back money you lent it.
Reimbursement to owner: the business paying you back for expenses you paid personally.
Owner draw for a sole proprietor, Owner distribution for a partnership or S corporation, Dividend or distribution for a C corporation: money you took out of the business for yourself. A draw isn't a salary: you're taxed on the business's profit whether you draw it or not. For a C corporation, it's profit paid out to you as the shareholder. Either way it isn't a cost, so it doesn't lower profit.

Paying yourself

Sole proprietor: there's no salary. What you take out is an Owner draw, and it isn't an expense.
S or C corporation: you're paid a salary through payroll. Record each payroll on Payroll (see Payroll): your gross pay is Officer salary, which is offered only to a business taxed as a corporation. It is a cost: it lowers profit, and on Reports → Taxes it goes on Compensation of officers (line 12 of Form 1120, line 7 of Form 1120-S). Money you take out beyond your salary is a distribution.
C corporation: what you take out beyond your salary is a Dividend or distribution. The corporation pays its own income tax; your salary and any dividends are taxed on your personal return.

Recording it by hand

On Owner, click Record.
Pick the Type. What it means shows under it, so you can check you have the right one.
Type the Amount and the Date it moved.
Pick the bank account it went into (Deposited to, for money in) or came out of (Paid from, for money out), so it matches your statements. Only bank accounts are listed, not cards. Add a Note if you like.
Click Record.

A draw or distribution can also be recorded, corrected or removed on Reports → Taxes, in its Owner Draws card (Owner Distributions for a partnership or S corporation, Dividends and Distributions for a C corporation): Record, the pencil and the bin.
To take one out of your books and reports, click the bin beside it (Remove on a phone), then Remove.
One recorded from a statement shows From a statement instead: it's changed from its line. One that's the personal part of a split charge shows Part of a split charge: it's changed from that expense.

Correcting a typo

Click the pencil beside the record (Edit on a phone). The same fields open, filled in.
Change what's wrong: the Amount, the Date, the account, the Note, or the Type. Click Save Changes.
A confirmation says what changes, such as $1,200.00 → $12,000.00 on Oct 3, 2026. Click Save Changes to keep it, or Cancel to go back.

The type changes only to another the same way round: a Loan from owner can become an Owner contribution, but money in can't become money out, and a draw or distribution stays one. For those, remove it and record the right one.
Each edit is kept in Recent Activity on Settings → Security, with what it was and what it became. The business's owners see it there.
A record from a statement keeps the statement's amount, date and account: to change those, explain the line again on its statement.

From a bank or card statement

Most owner money shows up on a statement first: a deposit from your personal account, a transfer out to it. When you review the statement, say what the line was with What is this? in its Category column:

Money in, on a bank account: Client payments…, Owner contribution or Loan from owner (for a corporation, Capital contribution or Shareholder loan). A deposit is set aside as Deposit until you say. (Client is EscBooks' default word; you can change it in Terms and features.)
Not an expense, for money out on a bank account or a card: Owner draw (Owner distribution, Dividend or distribution), Loan repaid to owner (Shareholder loan repayment) or Reimbursement to owner. The menu is the same on a line ticked as an expense: choose it there, with no need to untick first. A personal charge on the business card is an owner draw or distribution.
On a statement waiting for review, it's recorded when you approve the statement (Undo clears it before then). On an approved statement it's recorded at once, and Undo takes it back out of your books.
It takes the line's date and amount, the statement's account, and the line's note (or its description) as its note. On Owner it's listed with From a statement, a link back to the line.
A bank feed's months are reviewed the same way. More on reviewing in Reviewing statements.

Splitting a charge works too. Tick Personal for the part that wasn't the business's: paid from a business account, that part is recorded as an owner draw (or distribution) from it.

Expenses you paid personally

Paid for something the business needed with your own card or cash? Record it as an expense like any other, and set Paid With to Paid personally. It's a cost of the business: it lowers profit, in its own category. And until the business pays you back, it owes you for it.

Expenses Paid Personally, at the foot of Owner, lists the year's. Click one to open it.
Owed to You is all of them, every year, less what's been reimbursed. Reimburse opens Record Owner Money with Reimbursement to owner and that amount filled in; pick the account it was Paid from.
Mileage can't be marked paid personally: a trip in your own vehicle is already yours. A split charge's personal part, when you paid it personally, is simply left out of the books.

What the business owes you

The figures at the top of Owner:

Owed to You: expenses you paid personally, less reimbursements. All time.
Loans from Owner (Shareholder Loans): loans less repayments, what the business still owes you on money you lent it. All time. A sole proprietor sees it only if there's a balance to show.
Owner Draws (Owner Distributions, Dividends and Distributions): what you took out in the year shown, so far for this year. For anyone but a C corporation, your estimated tax paid from the business is money you took out too: it's in the total, and Of which estimated tax shows how much of it that was.
Contributions: everything you've put in as the owner, all years.

The first two are what the business owes you: liabilities. The list below them, Owner Money in the year, has every record, marked Money in or Money out; the arrows step the year.

In reports and the general ledger

No owner money is in a profit and loss. Expenses you paid personally are, as costs; reimbursing you for them isn't. See Reports and taxes.
On Reports → Taxes, the year's draws or distributions have their own card, apart from costs, with Estimated tax paid from the business on its own line in the total for anyone but a C corporation. The accountant packet lists them as Owner draws (not a deduction) (Owner distributions, Dividends and distributions), with of which estimated tax paid from the business under it.
In the General Ledger (Reports → Advanced), each has its account, named for how you file: Owner contributions or Capital contributions, and Owner draws, Owner distributions or Dividends and distributions, are equity. Loans from owner or Shareholder loans, and Owed to owner for expenses paid personally, are liabilities. A trip in your own vehicle is set against Owner's vehicle (mileage), equity. Each line's memo uses the same names.
Tax payments recorded with Record a Tax Payment are the owner's own estimated tax for anyone but a C corporation: paid with the business's money, they're a draw (or distribution), never a cost. They're kept in a sub-account so they show, Owner draws: estimated tax (Owner distributions: estimated tax), and a Total owner draws, estimated tax included line under it adds the two, matching the Owner page. A C corporation's are its own income tax, in Income tax expense. A payment of sales tax to the state is neither: it pays down Sales tax payable, a liability. See Business tax structure.
Draws and distributions are counted a year at a time. On December 31 of each finished year, a closing entry moves the year's draws or distributions, the estimated tax among them, into equity: Owner's capital for a sole proprietor, Partners' capital for a partnership, Retained earnings for an S or C corporation (with a C corporation's dividends). The next year's draws start at zero. Contributions and loans aren't closed: they carry forward. See Reports and taxes.
The other side of each is the bank account you picked. Money in with none picked waits in Undeposited funds; money out with none recorded is under Paid from: no account recorded. Month-End lists both for the month.