Something didn’t;t work. I created a credit note for the client and created a new account “Credit Prepayments) under Liabilities. When creating the note, instead of selecting an income account, I selected the new liabilities account and then posted the note. I then tried to process a payment for an outstanding invoice using the credit note but nothing happened. Where did I go wrong?
> On Jun 26, 2019, at 9:09 PM, Eric Rathhaus (general) <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Thanks! > >> On Jun 26, 2019, at 7:41 PM, Adrien Monteleone >> <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> In that case, certainly, you need to use credit notes. >> >> I don’t see any reason why this ‘wouldn’t work from an accounting >> standpoint’ but if you find a problem, instead of cutting a check to the >> customer as payment for the credit note, combine this with option #2 I >> listed, and this time, use that Liabilities:Customer Deposits account to >> ‘pay’ the credit note. This will show you have a liability to them and then >> you can decrease it by using it to later pay for future work. The credit >> note is cleared out instantly and you still track the money, however, any >> Aging Report or Customer Report will no longer reflect this deposit >> liability as a credit to them. You’d have to handle that part manually in an >> outside spreadsheet. (you could export the Customer/Aging Report to one >> sheet tab, export an Account or Transaction Report to another in the same >> workbook, and then devise a 3rd tab with references to those two to create >> the proper consolidated report) >> >> Note that doing it this way really isn’t necessary as GnuCash will track >> your overall AR and the balance for each customer if you just leave the >> Credit Notes hanging around until applied as future payments. >> >> I’d say you should speak to a local CPA, and then if you still have options, >> which one you go with would be a matter of personal preference. >> >> Regards, >> Adrien >> >>> On Jun 26, 2019, at 8:51 PM, Eric Rathhaus (general) via gnucash-user >>> <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> Hi Geert - >>> >>> I already issued the invoices and processed my clients payments against the >>> invoices. These payments are for filing fees to the US government for >>> which I subsequently cut checks. I created a job for this client that I use >>> to invoice these fees alone. The size of the filing fees is too high for me >>> to provide my client short-term loans to cover and then invoice later. My >>> client, in turn, won’t issue a payment without an invoice. So I issue an >>> invoice to my customer to get the prepayment. There are some complicated >>> legal reasons why once per year some of the filing fees won’t be cashed by >>> the government. The rest of the year everything is fine as I just ensure >>> the client paid all the invoices for the special job and then bill for my >>> work and other expenses on invoices for each specific job. This year I >>> have over $12k of funds I need to return to the client somehow. In the >>> past I created a credit note under the special job and sent my client a >>> check. This year they want me to use the credit to offset invoices for >>> subsequent work. I like the idea of creating a credit note under the >>> special filing fee job I use for these payments and then applying the >>> credit against other invoices I issue but I’m not sure if it will work from >>> an accounting standpoint. >>> >>>> On Jun 26, 2019, at 1:29 PM, Geert Janssens <[email protected]> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>> The way I understand your scenario I believe you can model what the >>>> customer >>>> does almost one to one into gnucash actions. >>>> >>>> 1. Customer prepays for expenses -> Create a payment for that customer >>>> using >>>> Business->Customer->Process Payment >>>> You can choose to map this payment to outstanding invoices or not. If you >>>> don't, it will simply register a prepayment for the customer. >>>> >>>> 2. At some point you send an invoice to the user -> Create this invoice >>>> using >>>> Business->Customer->New Invoice... and post it. >>>> >>>> 3. Now you can choose - does your invoice have (some of) the prepaid >>>> expenses >>>> ? If so, apply (part of) that prepayment to your invoice using Business- >>>>> Customer->Process Payment >>>> After this there may be an outstanding balance the customer still has to >>>> pay. >>>> >>>> 4. If the customer pays that outstanding balance, create the payment via >>>> Business->Customer->Process payment. >>>> >>>> Then repeat for the next cycle/invoice. >>>> >>>> If you are importing your payments instead of manually entering them, you >>>> can >>>> also select the payment in the respective account, right-click and choose >>>> "Assign as payment..." instead of the above mentioned "Process Payment" >>>> >>>> As Adrien also suggests at any time you could look at the Receivables >>>> Aging or >>>> Customer report to see what's the customer's current balance. >>>> >>>> Regards, >>>> >>>> Geert >>>> >>>> Op woensdag 26 juni 2019 21:52:43 CEST schreef Adrien Monteleone: >>>>> You have at least 2 options I can think of at the moment: >>>>> >>>>> #1 - continue to issue credit notes in your system, but don’t send them >>>>> out >>>>> or pay them with a check. When you have the next positive invoice, ‘pay’ a >>>>> portion (or all) of that invoice with the credit note. Simply process a >>>>> payment, select the credit note line and an invoice line you want to apply >>>>> it to in the top part of the window. GnuCash will offset the invoice with >>>>> the credit note for you. If the credit note is more than the invoice, it >>>>> will retain the left over as remaining AR credit to be used on subsequent >>>>> invoices. You can see the customer’s balance any time either by looking at >>>>> an AR aging report, or a Customer Report. Outstanding credit notes appear >>>>> in the Invoices Due Reminder window. >>>>> >>>>> #2 - If your client regularly pays in advance based on an estimate and you >>>>> invoice later, instead of applying the payment to an invoice, apply it to >>>>> a >>>>> Liabilities:Customer Deposits account. Then when you create and post the >>>>> final invoice, process a payment for it from this account. You could keep >>>>> a >>>>> separate deposit account for each customer but that might get tedious. You >>>>> can run a report on the account sorted by payee to show that info and even >>>>> keep that report open in a tab if desired, choosing to refresh it as >>>>> needed. If this might only happen for pre-paid expenses, then you can >>>>> still >>>>> use this method, but only for the pre-paid expense part, which you could >>>>> (or not) choose to invoice separately. >>>>> >>>>> Regards, >>>>> Adrien >>>>> >>>>>> On Jun 26, 2019, at 1:46 PM, Eric Rathhaus office <[email protected]> >>>>>> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> Hi - I have a client for whom I have many jobs. On some of these jobs, >>>>>> the client prepaid expenses that I did not use. In the past, I’ve always >>>>>> created a credit note for a refund and sent the client a check. However, >>>>>> my client prefers instead that I credit this amount towards future work. >>>>>> I’m not sure how to accomplish this cleanly. I could keep a running >>>>>> total of the amount and discount from the total prepayment until it’s >>>>>> used up. But this seems clunky and maybe not the best practice. Any >>>>>> other suggestions on how to account for the refund against future work? >>>>>> >>>>>> Kind regards, >>>>>> >>>>>> Eric W. Rathhaus >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> gnucash-user mailing list >>>>> [email protected] >>>>> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: >>>>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user >>>>> If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see >>>>> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- >>>>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. >>>>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> gnucash-user mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: >>>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user >>>> If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see >>>> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. >>>> ----- >>>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. >>>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> gnucash-user mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: >>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user >>> If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see >>> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. >>> ----- >>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. >>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> gnucash-user mailing list >> [email protected] >> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: >> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user >> If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see >> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. >> ----- >> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. >> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. 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