Different debit/credit dates.

[Matthew Vanecek]

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On Mon, 2002-10-07 at 13:29, Dale Alspach wrote:
> If the float time is critical you may want to institute some accounts
> which act like accounts payable and accounts receivable. This would force
> you to enter a transaction twice. The first transaction moves money betwe=
en
> one account and the float account and the second moves it between the flo=
at
> account and the other account. The way you do this will also be
> influenced by what your goal is. When you write a check do you want the
> balnce in gnucash to show that money as removed from the bank account at =
the
> time the check is written or at the time the bank honors the check?
> This is more or less the difference between accrual and cash accounting.
>=20
> Dale Alspach
>=20
> >Hi,
>=20
> >I just started using gnucash.  I'm also new to accounting.
>=20
> >When I move money between accounts (bank to bank, bank to credit card,
> >Paypal to bank, etc.), the source account is normally debited a few
> >days before the destination account is credited (and sometimes, the
> >other way around.)  This seems to be a pretty common phenomenon.  How
> >can I entered this correctly (and, hopefully, conveniently) in
> >gnucash?
>=20

Generally, you'd want the amount to be removed from the source account
at the time you perform the transaction, and placed in the destination
account at the same time.  The AR/AP scheme suggested above may provide
a way around the issue, but is, as far as I know, not a general practice
for accounting.  Especially for your credit card accounts (and other
liabilities), you probably do not want to implement such a scheme.

It's up to you to know when money hits the destination account, possibly
by reconciling, and you definitely need to keep track of the money.=20
However, using the above scheme may tend to interfere with your ability
to effectively track what you money is doing.  IMO, the best way is to
ignore the dates (i.e., the date you initiated the transaction is the
date for both sides), but keep in the back of your mind (especially for
bank accounts and close-to-limit credit cards) what your available
balance is in the questioned account.

I've never heard of a firm tracking the dates as you wish to, but
perhaps a listening qualified accountant may have some insight...

--=20
Matthew Vanecek
perl -e 'print
$i=3Dpack(c5,(41*2),sqrt(7056),(unpack(c,H)-2),oct(115),10);'
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*****
For 93 million miles, there is nothing between the sun and my shadow
except me.
I'm always getting in the way of something...

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