I've had this conversation with another business owner / my brother. I use just 'gas' as 'other vendor' and enter the location on the memo line 'Chevron'. If you shop at Home Depot a lot, I maybe would enter them as a vendor or other vendor. Vendor has quicker access.

You can also write a check without a vendor on those rare occasions you pay a company you don't expect to pay again. Just be sure you use the correct account or item so you can search for it when needed.

I like the idea of entering DC last four digits and date. However I've resorted to the following date format due to the files we keep for clients, YYYY-MM-DD. When I did the month first, I found myself having to search through every 'April' to find the most current April. Solved the problem.

Hope this helps.