Bill System Questions

[Derek Atkins]

HI,

Quoting Des Dougan <des at douganconsulting.com>:

> I use the business features for my own business, so I will try to
> answer your questions.
> On 23 Mar 2009, at 19:30, David T. wrote:
>
>>
>> I am trying out the Business functions for the first time (using
>> them to track bills I receive and then pay them), and I have run
>> into some things I do not understand. I will focus on Gnucash
>> interface issues here, and will try to grok the accounting side
>> separately. Please keep in mind that IANAA, just a home user of
>> Gnucash.
>>
>> 1) If I accidentally create a bill, how do I delete it?
>
> AFAIK, you can't - it should be marked inactive.

Your other option is to re-use the bill later.

>> 2) On a related note, once a bill is in the system, where does it
>> go? I have registers for everything else, but not for bills...

Nowhere, until you POST the bill to your A/P account.  The Invoice
and Bill system is "outside" your chart of accounts.

>> 3) Is there some way to see a list of all out-standing bills? GC
>> seems to only be able to give me one vendor's bills at a time...
>
> Look at the Payables Aging report.
>
>>
>> 4) Could someone explain why there is no button on the Bill details
>> screen to get the user to indicate that they want to commit a bill?
>> There is no action to "enter the bill." Most other transaction
>> registers have some sort of confirmation action--as when one is
>> asked whether an open transaction should be saved or discarded when
>> a register is closed.
>
> Post it. It's an icon on the right end of the toolbar.

Correct, as stated above, the Business features are outside the CoA.
In order to get the bill into your Chart of Accounts you need to post
it, at which point it will create the transaction (between A/P and
your expense accounts).

>>
>> 5) For some reason, when I assign a line on a bill to one of my
>> expense accounts, the expense does not turn up in the associated
>> expense account, as I would expect. Is this normal behavior, or is
>> something wrong? [It was this point that led to questions 1 to 4]
>
> No, not normal - I just checked a recent bill and then went to the
> expense account, and the other side of the transaction is there.

Actually, yes, this is perfectly normal.  The Expense Account will
not see the bill entries..   At least not until you post the bill.
Once you post the bill the entries will appear in the CoA.

>> 6) When processing a payment, I note that the dialog box includes
>> text input boxes that cannot be used directly; you have to use the
>> select button. These controls should not be text input boxes, since
>> they cannot take text input. At the least, they should be grayed out.

They aren't text boxes, per se...

Eventually that widget should become a phrase wheel search widget.

Note that this particular widget is used all throughout the business
features of gnucash.

>> 7) When searching for a bill to pay from the Process Payment window,
>> the search results window re-uses the general results window.
>> Unfortunately, this window includes a Process Payment button, which
>> leads the unsuspecting stupid user (me) into a foggy haze trying to
>> figure out where they are in the Process Payment process.
>
> If you use the Payables Aging report (and Receivables Aging for your
> invoices), you can select the sum owed, click on the Bill link to see
> the bill you created, then select Business, Pay Invoice. To me, it's a
> cleaner process.

Either way, stupid users can shoot themselves in the foot.  There just
aren't that many safety measures in the world to protect an idiot.  If
you don't understand the tools you're using you can still drill a hole
in your head.  I'm sorry, but I'm of the opinion that the drill maker
is NOT responsible for you putting the bit to your skull and you pulling
the trigger.   You get what you deserve.

>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available