I agree it is a bit backwards from an accounting perspective. But some of my payees wait up to several weeks to cash checks, and I prefer to have an accurate picture of my spendable balances. My mental model has the money leaving the account when I issue a check, so that whenever the payee ends up cashing it is immaterial to me.
On Sunday, April 14, 2019 at 11:35:32 AM UTC-4, Martin Blais wrote: > > Seems to me you're doing it backwards, I'd have recognized the expense > first, then booked the asset change when the money actually leaves the > checking account. > > > On Sat, Apr 13, 2019 at 6:09 PM <[email protected] <javascript:>> wrote: > >> Rather than booking outstanding checks as an asset under >> "Assets:Chase:Checking:Payable", you could track them under Liabilities. >> Here's how I handle checks: >> >> 2019-03-01 * "My Building" "March 2019 Rent" #rent >> Liabilities:AccountsPayable 1000.00 USD >> Assets:Checking:Chase >> >> 2019-03-10 * "My Building" "Check #12345" #rent >> Liabilities:AccountsPayable -1000.00 USD >> Expenses:Rent:MyAddress >> >> This way, the money "leaves" your checking account as soon as you write >> the check, but it is still tracked as an outstanding liability. When the >> check is cached, it gets booked under the appropriate expense account. >> >> On Saturday, April 13, 2019 at 2:11:00 PM UTC-4, Aamer wrote: >>> >>> I agree, this behavior is somewhat surprising. I might be misisng >>> something, but this seems to conflict with Martin's advice to view account >>> names as "tags" ( >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/beancount/MqIk8nfgtx0/8YSzZpQTEAAJ). >>> >>> In this case, the hierarchy does matter since the balance directive will >>> sum up to the parent account. Similarly, Fava's UI seems to also indicate >>> that hierarchy is important. >>> >>> On Sat, Apr 13, 2019 at 4:07 PM Zhuoyun Wei <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> One thing that surprises me (I noticed this just now, when writing the >>>> last reply) is that Beancount "balance" directive computes the balance of >>>> the parant account along with all child accounts. >>>> >>>> Say you have 1000.00 USD in the checking account, and you write a check >>>> of 100.00 USD to your friend. Now you have 900.00 USD in the parent >>>> account >>>> alone and 100.00 USD in the child / leaf ":Payable" account. And the >>>> assertion: >>>> >>>> 20XX-XX-XX balance Assets:Bank:Checking 1000.00 USD >>>> >>>> passes. This very behavior makes it easy for you to compare the balance >>>> in Beancount with the balance in your bank. At the same time, you could >>>> know how many money you could spend (without overdraft) by manually >>>> subtract the amount in ":Payable" from the parent tree. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Zhuoyun Wei >>>> >>>> On Sat, Apr 13, 2019, at 20:44, Zhuoyun Wei wrote: >>>> > In the case of writing checks, my approach is to use two transactions: >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > 2019-01-01 * "John Doe" "Settle up Splitwise" #check ^check123 >>>> > Assets:Chase:Checking -100.00 USD >>>> > Assets:Chase:Checking:Payable >>>> > >>>> > 2019-02-01 * "CHECK 123" ^check123 >>>> > document: "2019-02-01.check-123.pdf" >>>> > Assets:Chase:Checking:Payable -100.00 USD >>>> > Equity:ARAP:JohnDoe >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > The first trasnaction is entered manually by me, on the day of >>>> writing >>>> > the check, in a separate file ("checks.bean"). The second transaction >>>> > is imported by "bean-extract" from the CSV my bank provides, at the >>>> end >>>> > of each month (along with the image of the check). >>>> > >>>> > Sometimes it takes quite a while for your checks to clear, so using >>>> two >>>> > transactions is essential. This way, you can easily determine how >>>> many >>>> > checks and money are not cleared by examing the transactions in the >>>> > ":Payable" account, and also avoid blank checks / NSF by examing the >>>> > balance of the parant account (excluding the leaf account). The bonus >>>> > touch is, the two transactions are linked ("^check123"), so in Fava >>>> you >>>> > could click the link to show corresponding trasactions, no matter how >>>> > many days they are apart. >>>> > >>>> > I remember someone in the mailing list wrote a plugin called >>>> > ZeroSumAccounts, which did similar things. >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > -- >>>> > Zhuoyun Wei >>>> > >>>> > On Sat, Apr 13, 2019, at 12:43, Martin Michlmayr wrote: >>>> > > * Zhuoyun Wei <[email protected]> [2019-04-12 23:27]: >>>> > > > > For example, there is no way in the base format to note whether >>>> a transaction has been reconciled or not. >>>> > > > By "reconciled", I am assuming the LWN editor is refer to the >>>> difference between "*" and "!" transactions? >>>> > > >>>> > > I'm not sure what his process is exactly. Using flags might be part >>>> > > of it. >>>> > > >>>> > > But it might also be things like: when you write a check, you >>>> create a >>>> > > transaction for the check (normally you record the money as leaving >>>> > > your bank account when you write the check and not when the person >>>> > > deposits the check, but in reality the money is on your bank account >>>> > > until it gets deposited by the other person). So you may have to >>>> > > reconcile why your bank account balance is different to what your >>>> > > books say by looking at a list of uncashed checks. >>>> > > >>>> > > That kind of things. Basically, your books won't always show bank >>>> > > account balances all the time. >>>> > > >>>> > > -- >>>> > > Martin Michlmayr >>>> > > https://www.cyrius.com/ >>>> > > >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "Beancount" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>> an email to [email protected]. >>>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/360165f8-609c-4c84-a66b-77fe80458421%40www.fastmail.com >>>> . >>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>>> >>> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Beancount" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected] <javascript:>. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> <javascript:>. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/a06a8f13-3caf-442a-a2e3-8b52a6fbc999%40googlegroups.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/a06a8f13-3caf-442a-a2e3-8b52a6fbc999%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Beancount" group. 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