book options, A/P use

[Tom Collier]

You'd use A/P to record bills sent to you by your vendors. Guncash is an
accrual system, so for reporting purposes, the bill is recorded when you
receive it, not when you pay it.

Direct expense allocation = If you write a check or pay out of petty
cash for a box of pencils at an office supply store, you'd record a
payment from Assets:Checking or Assets:Petty Cash, to Expenses:Office
Supplies.

Indirect expense allocation = If you charge a box of pencils on your
office supply store account, and the office supply store sends you a
bill, you enter that bill from the store in Liabilities:Accounts Payable
and assign that bill to the Expense:Office Supplies line.  Later, when
you pay that bill, say at the end of the month, you allocate the check
to A/P for that particular bill, and it zeros out that bill in A/P.
You've already expensed it to Office Supplies when the bill came in.

 I find it avoids confusion to make this distinction: When I owe them
money, they send me a "bill." When they owe ME money, I send them an
"invoice." An "invoice" is always money due to me. A "bill" is always
money I owe someone else. FWIW....