Struggling with vendor payments

[Maf. King]

On Tuesday 26 Jul 2005 12:28, Andrew Greig wrote:
> Hi all,

Hi, I'm in the UK, and IANAA, so keep an eye out for things (like GST) which 
probably work differently under Australian law.

>
>
> Initially I entered each of my parking receipts as a separate 'invoice",
> but I found the process of always having to "search" for the same vendor
> was tedious, so now I have lumped them all into one invoice with docket
> numbers on the different dates, and I "pay" them at the end of the month
> out of petty cash, whereas in fact I put the money in the meter on each
> particular day.  Is ther any way to short cut this continual search for
> the same vendor?  If I have 15 items from the same vendor, is there a
> "Save & Next" facility to speed up my data entry?
>

Personally, I don't work like this.  I use the "Vendor" system for Accounts 
Payable - ie bills which need payment at a later date, not regular small cash 
expenses.  

Following your example of parking charges, I would record those as a direct 
expense from petty cash.  That way, you will get tab-completion in the 
register window.  If your parking charge is the same day-to-day, then you 
will save loads of typing!  GST is done as a split - you will have to 
calculate that manually, if it not shown on your parking receipt.

If it is actually your money that goes into the meter, and the company refunds 
you later, then set up a liability:me account and transfer to that 
periodically (from bank:current or wherever) and record each day's parking 
costs as a transfer from liability:me -> expenses:parking ( & GST as 
required!)

> While on vendor payments, some of my payments (for one parking docket
> for example) are split into 3 payments of unequal amounts $4.40 is
> broken into $0.40 and $1.80 and $2.20.  In some other cases in the
> register, the payment precedes the invoice and the running balances look
> very untidy.

That sounds like you haven't used the vendor->process payment dialog at some 
stage in the past, or have paid a bill and subsequently deleted it.  You may 
need to remove all your payments and start again... :-(

>
> Is it possible to lump all of the invoices for one vendor into one place
> for payment with one amount?  I can't seem to find this feature referred
> to in the manual.  Perhaps domestic blindness has set in, can't find my
> socks some time.

GC will pay all bills in a strict date order - that can't be altered in 
current versions.  There has been some talk about making an option, but I 
don't know if/when that may happen.

If you have several bills awaiting payment, then making a single payment 
transaction will pay them in date order, with a partial payment to the final 
bill if required.
I.E. if you have bills of $1, $3, $5, $2, $4 (in date order) and you  try to 
pay the $2 bill, then GC will show the $1 and part of the $3 bill as paid. 
Paying another $7 will clear the $3 and $5 bills. 

hope that makes sense!

>
> I am operating under an Australian GST system.  I have GST collected and
> GST Paid both in my Liabilities section, and when the time comes to fill
> out the business activity statement for the government I can deduct one
> from the other and make the appropriate payment or request a refund.
>

Sounds sensible, although is "GST Paid" technically an asset, in that it is 
your money that someone else is looking after?

HTH,
Maf.