Q: How to record a grant

[Phillip Shelton]

But then how do you keep a track of the fact that that money is to only be
used on one project and when the money from the grant has run out the
project has to stop or find some new funding.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gnucash-devel-admin@lists.gnumatic.com
> [mailto:gnucash-devel-admin@lists.gnumatic.com]On Behalf Of Conrad
> Canterford
> Sent: Monday, June 04, 2001 10:55 AM
> To: Ben Stanley
> Cc: gnucash-devel@gnucash.org
> Subject: Re: Q: How to record a grant
>
>
> Ben Stanley wrote:
> > <jalapeno> Here's a silly accounting question:
> > <jalapeno> I'm the treasurer for a church...
> > <jalapeno> Let's say I get a grant for $500.00 for a
> specific purpose
> > <jalapeno> The money is deposited into the church bank account
> > <jalapeno> It is spent in smaller transactions over the
> course of the
> > following year or so
> > <jalapeno> How do I keep track of it?
> > <jalapeno> 1) open a new sub-account of the bank account? (makes it
> > difficult to reconcile the bank account)
> > <jalapeno> 2) create a new liability, started off by an
> amount equal to
> > the grant. Deposit the grant money into the bank account.
> Spending the
> > grant money reduces the liability.
> > <jalapeno> I'm doing 2), but it means I have to check the
> balance of the
> > bank account against my liabilities every time I write a cheque...
> > <jalapeno> But it does make it easy to reconcile the bank
> statements.
> > :-)
> >
> > If there is a better way of doing it, I'd like to hear it.
>
> Have you considered making the grant an "equity" account rather than a
> liability? Transfer money from the equity account to the bank account
> when you receive the grant. I haven't thought through the wider
> implications of this, but its the first thing that came to my mind and
> is the solution I would have thought logical.
> I can discuss this more with you on IRC if you wish.
>
> Conrad.
> --
> Conrad Canterford  (conrad@mail.watersprite.com.au)
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