Re: Invoice & Bill Posting Date Issues Across Multiple Periods

[Dale Alspach]

Adrien,

I do not use the business features but it seems from what you have
written that something like the following may do what you want.

Create a new liability account named Unbilled Payables (or whatever you
like).
Replace
> Dr. Assets:Current_Assets:Pre-Paid_Expenses:Auto_Insurance
> Cr. Liabilities:Accounts_Payable
by
Dr. Assets:Current_Assets:Pre-Paid_Expenses:Auto_Insurance
Cr. Liabilities:Unbilled Payables

There is no change in the Balance Sheet net. The entry in Unbilled
Payables should be tagged so that an audit trail could be constructed.

When the bill arrives, post the bill so that you effect a transfer
between the liabilities
Dr. Liabilities:Unbilled Payables
Cr. Liabilities:Accounts_Payable

Again there is no change in the Balance Sheet net. At this point the
normal flow of the business features should generate your reminder and,
upon payment, zero the liability for the pre-paid insurance. The asset
becomes real.

Dale

On 12/15/2017 02:57 PM, Adrien Monteleone wrote:
> Yes, I can explain. And the example of insurance is just that. A pre-paid 
> expense IS an asset. (in accrual accounting)
> 
> I pay in advance for auto insurance. The policy renews every 6 months. (for 
> me, this is in December and June)
> 
> Paying in advance is a pre-paid expense. This is an asset. I have not yet 
> received ‘service’ from the insurance company.
> 
> Here’s what the entry should be twice a year:
> 
> Dr. Assets:Current_Assets:Pre-Paid_Expenses:Auto_Insurance
> Cr. Assets:Current_Assets:Cash
> 
> As I receive ‘service’ each month, or ‘use’ the asset, I credit the pre-paid 
> expense account and debit the actual expense account for one-sixth of the 
> asset (as this is a 6-month policy):
> 
> Dr. Expenses:Auto:Auto_Insurance
> Cr. Assets:Current_Assets:Pre-Paid_Expenses:Auto_Insurance
> 
> The original question was trying to resolve the issue of posting the bill 
> from the insurer for each renewal and how that affects recognition of the 
> acquisition of the pre-paid expense asset.
> 
> My current entry from the bill is:
> 
> Dr. Assets:Current_Assets:Pre-Paid_Expenses:Auto_Insurance
> Cr. Liabilities:Accounts_Payable
> 
> and then when I pay it:
> 
> Dr. Liabilities:Accounts_Payable
> Cr. Assets:Current_Assets:Cash
> 
> Technically, legally, I don’t have this asset until I actually pre-pay. The 
> generation of a paper bill from the insurer is not an activity that either is 
> the earning of income on their part, the incurring of an expense on mine, or 
> even the assumption of a liability on the part of either of us. If I decline 
> to pay the bill, the policy never goes into effect, I never receive anything 
> of value and the insurer earns nothing, owes me nothing, and has no claim 
> against me. (I don’t owe them anything)
> 
> Posting the bill on any date other than the actual payment date creates the 
> problem of properly recognizing the asset. This is even more problematic if 
> the bill for renewal is received and posted into GnuCash in the period prior 
> to the renewal and payment date. (frequently the case - the bill usually 
> arrives in mid November/May)
> 
> Note, I can’t find any guidance online on posting a ‘bill' for pre-paid 
> insurance. ALL examples I find state to make the above entry—effective on the 
> date of payment. I suspect this is because it is a shift in assets that 
> cannot occur until it actually does. This is not a cash vs. accrual problem. 
> The very use of the pre-paid expense account is a practice of accrual 
> accounting and NOT cash basis accounting. (on a cash basis, the entire 
> premium would be expensed when paid)
> 
> Accrual vs. Cash doesn’t mean "document-dates vs. payment-dates." It means 
> "activity-dates vs. payment-dates.”
> 
> In fact, I see very little guidance with reference to the receipt of bills or 
> issuing of invoices. What I see is how to make entries for when the relevant 
> activity trigger takes place. (an expense is incurred or revenue is earned)
> 
> In the case of a pre-paid expense, (a deferred expense) the activity takes 
> place in later periods than the payment date. So the expense has to be 
> accrued as it is incurred. In the case of an accrued expense (the opposite) 
> the expense is recognized when incurred, and is booked as a liability until 
> paid.
> 
> It seems the business features only contemplated accrued expenses. (and 
> conversely on the invoice side, did not consider un-billed work)
> 
> So posting this bill shouldn’t even be a liability, it’s not an accrued 
> expense, it’s a deferred expense. It should never hit AP but I can’t see 
> anyway around that the way the system presently works.
> 
> A complication is that the Bills Due Reminder feature only works on posted 
> bills because that is when you enter the due date.(it can’t calculate 
> anything without it, unless you have fixed terms, but even with that, unless 
> you post, the reminder will not be triggered)
> 
> It would be nice to enter the bill when 

Control order of splits importing from QIF?

[Greg Skelhorn]

   Hello,
   I created a QIF file to test importing a payroll transaction. The
   import works well but the splits are ordered differently in the gnucash
   transaction than the QIF file.
   I enter the splits in an order matching the report from the payroll
   software to make it easier to review / check.
   Is it possible to control the order of splits within a transaction
   imported from a QIF file? If not, is there another format I could
   import transactions from that will preserve the order of the splits?
   Thanks!
   Greg
___
gnucash-user mailing list
gnucash-user@gnucash.org
https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
-
Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.

Re: A BASH script to help get tax-related data from gnucash

[Dr. David Kirkby - Kirkby Microwave Ltd]

On 12/16/17 02:40 PM, David Carlson wrote:

Could this script be referenced somewhere in the GnuCash WIKI?

David C


It would be nice if it was POSIX compliant, so work on any UNIX system.


--
Dr. David Kirkby Ph.D CEng MIET
Kirkby Microwave Ltd
Registered office: Stokes Hall Lodge, Burnham Rd, Althorne, Essex, CM3 6DT, UK.
Registered in England and Wales, company number 08914892.
http://www.kirkbymicrowave.co.uk/
Tel: 07910 441670 / +44 7910 441670 (0900 to 2100 GMT only please)
___
gnucash-user mailing list
gnucash-user@gnucash.org
https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
-
Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.

Re: A BASH script to help get tax-related data from gnucash

[David Carlson]

Could this script be referenced somewhere in the GnuCash WIKI?

David C

On Sat, Dec 16, 2017 at 3:44 AM, David T. via gnucash-user <
gnucash-user@gnucash.org> wrote:

> I’m sorry. Your original characterization was vague, and I didn’t
> understand what your issue with that report was. I see what you are noting,
> although it’s not something that bothers me. FWIW, I would probably dump
> the report into a spreadsheet and munge the data there if the redundancies
> were an issue.
>
> Nevertheless, thanks for sharing your script; perhaps it will help others
> out!
>
> Cheers,
> David
>
> > On Dec 15, 2017, at 8:22 PM, azalea4va 
> wrote:
> >
> > GnuCash - User mailing list wrote
> >> If you have set the accounts as tax-related, why wouldn't you use the
> Tax
> >> Schedule Report?
> >
> > I thought I addressed that in my post when I said "I find the provided
> "Tax
> > Schedule Report" as being les than ideal in its presentation of the
> > information I seek."
> >
> > Look at the attached screenshot where I have side-by-side the portions of
> > the two reports information about "Tax Prep" expenses,  tax-prep.png
> >   .
> The Tax
> > Schedule report has 4 lines vs 1 in the Income Statement and the Tax
> > Schedule is almost twice as wide.  They convey the same USEFUL
> information
> > but the Tax Schedule takes almost 8 times the space.  Additionally,
> there is
> > the "noise" of other info on the Tax Schedule that intereferes with
> easily
> > accessing the info I want.  Please understand that this example is just
> > showing one data item, so the "noise" is not a major issue.  But when one
> > looks at the entire report with hundreds of lines of output (most of it
> > noise), then the noise really gets in the way. Yes the tax Schedule also
> > gives the line number on the tax form.  But that is useless info for
> me.  I
> > use tax prep software so I am not dealing with line numbers in forms.
> But
> > also, it is not a number I can rely on as depending on the version of
> > gnucash and the tax year, that number will not always be accurate.
> >
> > In addition, because of the lack of noise in the Income Statement, it is
> > easy to copy/paste the tax-related data into a spreadsheet (or whatever).
> > Yes, getting info out of gnucash for use in other things is something of
> > value to me. For example, in a spreadsheet where I have an added column
> that
> > tracks if a data item will have a tax form being sent to me and if that
> form
> > has been received or not. The spreadsheet makes it easy to keep track of
> > cross checking received form data with data in gnucash and data entered
> into
> > the tax return itself.
> >
> > So for those reasons, I find the Income Statement format more useful.  I
> am
> > not saying the Income Statement is "better" for everyone, just that I
> find
> > it a useful alternative. Your mileage may vary.  I offer the tool for
> anyone
> > who finds it of value.
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-
> f1415819.html
> > ___
> > gnucash-user mailing list
> > gnucash-user@gnucash.org
> > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> > -
> > 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
> gnucash-user@gnucash.org
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> -
> 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
gnucash-user@gnucash.org
https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
-
Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.

Re: Error in Tip of the Day

[David Carlson]

The two bug reports contain different descriptions of the reasoning behind
calling it a bug, so I think that it would be appropriate to just leave
them cross referenced until the situation is resolved, rather than marking
one as a duplicate.

David C

On Fri, Dec 15, 2017 at 9:25 PM, Daniel Narvaes 
wrote:

> On Fri, 2017-12-15 at 09:36 +0100, Geert Janssens wrote:
> > Op zondag 10 december 2017 22:26:40 CET schreef Daniel Narvaes:
> > >
> > > I've been using gnucash for a long time, and I usually read the tip
> > > of the
> > > day, and try it if I have not seen it before.  Today it said "To
> > > switch
> > > between multiple tabs in the main window, press Control+Page
> > > Up/Down."  I
> > > tried it and it didn't work.  After browsing the users mailing
> > > list, I
> > > found out the correct key combination is "Ctrl+Alt+Page Up/Down."
> > >
> > > I'm using gnucash 2.6.12 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.  Can someone check
> > > and see if
> > > the description is still wrong on the latest version?  If so, I'll
> > > file a
> > > bug report, unless you want to do that for me too.  I would still
> > > have to
> > > create an account on Bugzilla to make a bug report.
> > > ___
> > > gnucash-user mailing list
> > > gnucash-user@gnucash.org
> > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> > > -
> > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
> > You are correct it should be "Ctrl-Alt-Page Up/Down". That's how it
> > works on
> > the current stable version (2.6.18) as well.
> >
> > On the current development version this appears to be broken. It will
> > only
> > work if a notebook tab is clicked on first (which is defeating the
> > initial
> > idea). And it breaks down on report pages.
> >
> > Please do file a bug report and feel free to quote my findings as
> > well.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Geert
> >
> So, I created an account on Bugzilla, and when I started typing a
> description of the bug, it referred me to similar bug reports.  It
> turns out there are already a couple of bug reports on this issue,
> one of which is over ten years old!
>
> Can you take a look and see if you think there is anything else that
> needs to be added to the existing bug reports?
> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=647744
> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=450717
>
> -Daniel
> ___
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user@gnucash.org
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> -
> 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
gnucash-user@gnucash.org
https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
-
Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.

Re: A BASH script to help get tax-related data from gnucash

[David T. via gnucash-user]

I’m sorry. Your original characterization was vague, and I didn’t understand 
what your issue with that report was. I see what you are noting, although it’s 
not something that bothers me. FWIW, I would probably dump the report into a 
spreadsheet and munge the data there if the redundancies were an issue.

Nevertheless, thanks for sharing your script; perhaps it will help others out!

Cheers,
David

> On Dec 15, 2017, at 8:22 PM, azalea4va  wrote:
> 
> GnuCash - User mailing list wrote
>> If you have set the accounts as tax-related, why wouldn't you use the Tax
>> Schedule Report?  
> 
> I thought I addressed that in my post when I said "I find the provided "Tax
> Schedule Report" as being les than ideal in its presentation of the
> information I seek."
> 
> Look at the attached screenshot where I have side-by-side the portions of
> the two reports information about "Tax Prep" expenses,  tax-prep.png
>   .  The Tax
> Schedule report has 4 lines vs 1 in the Income Statement and the Tax
> Schedule is almost twice as wide.  They convey the same USEFUL information
> but the Tax Schedule takes almost 8 times the space.  Additionally, there is
> the "noise" of other info on the Tax Schedule that intereferes with easily
> accessing the info I want.  Please understand that this example is just
> showing one data item, so the "noise" is not a major issue.  But when one
> looks at the entire report with hundreds of lines of output (most of it
> noise), then the noise really gets in the way. Yes the tax Schedule also
> gives the line number on the tax form.  But that is useless info for me.  I
> use tax prep software so I am not dealing with line numbers in forms.  But
> also, it is not a number I can rely on as depending on the version of
> gnucash and the tax year, that number will not always be accurate. 
> 
> In addition, because of the lack of noise in the Income Statement, it is
> easy to copy/paste the tax-related data into a spreadsheet (or whatever).
> Yes, getting info out of gnucash for use in other things is something of
> value to me. For example, in a spreadsheet where I have an added column that
> tracks if a data item will have a tax form being sent to me and if that form
> has been received or not. The spreadsheet makes it easy to keep track of
> cross checking received form data with data in gnucash and data entered into
> the tax return itself.
> 
> So for those reasons, I find the Income Statement format more useful.  I am
> not saying the Income Statement is "better" for everyone, just that I find
> it a useful alternative. Your mileage may vary.  I offer the tool for anyone
> who finds it of value.
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html
> ___
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user@gnucash.org
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> -
> 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
gnucash-user@gnucash.org
https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
-
Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.