Chris,
If for some reason you don’t want to use the business features and prefer to
enter transactions manually, the auto-fill feature helps greatly for this case.
I enter all of my cash expenses with a separate sales tax split. (I’m not in a
VAT locale, this is ‘in addition to’ sales tax) The principle should be the
same for VAT but the math might vary.
If you’re entering a transaction for the same payee, GnuCash will autofill the
splits from the last entry for that payee. So if you’ve entered a split for
GST, it will show up there. The difference then for each transaction will be
your memo, possibly your income/expense account will need to change, and then
the actual math, but the GST split will be added for you saving a few
keystrokes.
In your case, for the item itself, enter the price as a formula and subtract the GST
(I’m presuming it is inclusive) as "price / 1+(GST rate)”
So if your price inclusive of tax is $2.10 your formula is:
2.10 / 1.05lyl
which will give you your ‘pre-tax’ amount or in this example: $2.00
Then the GST split will automatically “be” the tax. (if you’ve already entered
the opposing split)
If you want to double check it with a formula (helpful for more complicated
entries with multiple other splits) then enter this as “price - (price / 1(GST
rate)”
So the above example would be:
2.10 - (2.10 / 1.05)
Which would result in a GST split amount of $0.10.
Of course, these number look easy but the formulas work no matter how ‘messy’
the rate.
It isn’t automatic, but it does save time and is very easy to do, especially
with practice.
Note, if you really need to enter the price for the item including GST, but
also want a separate split to break it off to a GST Due or some such account,
then you’ll need an additional split with a memo something like “GST/Tax
Inclusive” and make it the reverse entry of the item. (so a credit to an
expense account or a debit to a revenue/income account) and set its value to
the amount of the GST split, thus your transaction will still balance.
For example:
Cr. Cash $105
Dr. Expense:Supplies $105
-memo “paper"
Cr. Expenses:Supplies $5
-memo “GST Inclusive”
Dr. Expenses:GST $5
-memo “GST 5%"
- or -
Dr. Cash $105
Cr. Revenue:Sales $105
-memo “widgets”
Dr. Revenue:Sales $5
-memo “GST inclusive”
Cr. Liabilities:GST Due $5
-memo “GST 5%"
Of course, talk to a local CPA to make sure your reports are reflecting the
proper amounts and adjust these entries as needed. These are just rough
examples.
*Tip - because I pay different tax rates due to purchase location, I include
the rate in the memo line for future reference should I need it. This too
autofills not just from the previous entry, but if I start typing a name for
the different jurisdiction, the previous rate and any other info from the most
recent same memo gets auto-filled as well.
Also, while you can enter transaction from the General Journal, entering them
from the account that the money is going to/from is less error prone. So if you
are paying out of your checking account, enter the transaction from there, one
of the splits will HAVE to be a credit to the checking account. The others are
going to be debits to balance against it.
If you are receiving cash funds for example, then enter that in the Assets:Cash
register as a debit and the other splits will have to be the offsetting
credits. (likely an income/revenue account)
The advantage here is you won’t accidentally choose the wrong account to send
or place the money, the only variable here is why it was spent or why it was
received.
Regards,
Adrien
On Nov 10, 2018, at 3:09 PM, CHRISTOPHER PEARCE <fernwood...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello all,
I would like Gnucash to automatically create a split transaction for sales
tax when a taxable product is bought/sold. I deal with a lot of
transactions, and its a pain to manually enter the sales tax for each one.
I'd rather just work within the general ledger and have Gnucash do it
automatically.
For example, I buy a widget for $100 + 5% GST = $105. I want Gnucash to
automatically create the split, and allocate $5.00 to the GST liability
account.
Of course, the ability to override the default 5% would be necessary.
Is what I'm asking for possible? I'm not a programmer, so I realize this
may be a dumb question.
(Frist time on this mailing list, so apologies if I break etiquette)
Thanks,
Chris
--
Chris Pearce
-----------------
President
Fernwood Tax Solutions
Victoria, BC Regina,SK
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