Different debit/credit dates.

[Dale Alspach]

I totally agree with Matthew. My answer was merely to suggest a way it
could be done. I would only track float if I suspected someone was
running a kiting scheme or I am thinking about changing banks, vendors,
etc., because of unusually long waiting times. ("kiting" Holding money in
transit in an account for a few days in order to  profit from the interest or
other return. May lead to being a "guest" at a government facility for
an extended period.) I find float to be minimal. Generally this results
from banking days. An ATM withdrawal on Friday hits the account on
Monday. In-state bank to bank transaction run overnight with a possible
one day processing lag at each end. Out-of-state
 in US transactions add another day. Credit card companies place a hold at
transaction time but don't post until confirmation is received, etc. Also
tracking actual available funds can get horribly messy.  If I deposit
cash and some checks, the bank will post the cash  immediately. If the
checks are small they checks will show as deposited the same or next
day. If they are large or the bank has some doubt about the checks,
they may hold posting or nominally post but not allow withdrawal.

As a practical matter one rarely finds out the actual posting date of a
transaction until the statement arrives or an online accounting is viewed.
At that point it seems to make little difference what the precise dates were. A
rough estimate of the date is generally good enough to identify the
transaction. For personal accounting I mainly am concerned about what
expenditures I have committed to on a month to month basis. A few days one
way or the other does not really matter and it is a pleasant surprise when
a purchase on a credit card ends up on a later month.

Dale Alspach

>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...

>Matthew Vanecek