Newbie Problem

[Walt Pennington]

There are two general methods of accounting.  One is the cash, the other
is accrual.  Generally, only businesses use the accrual method.  

You should not need to record expenses until you pay them with a check
or cash from your checking account.  



If you have a new expense such as the telephone ($20) or Gas ($35), you
generally will not account for these until they are paid.  If you paid
the expense with check 101 from your BankofAmerica account, you would
open the Bank_Accounts:Bank_of_America:

1/28/03  101   Telephone				$20

This will put the entry in both your checking and your expense.  The
accounting entry is:

Expense:Telephone				$20
Bank_Accounts:Bank_of_America				$20


If you want to accrue the expense when you receive it, you would use an
account called AccountsPayable (a liability account).  You would open
Accounts Payable, and add a DEBIT entry for 

1/28/03		Gas				$35

The accounting entry would be

Expense:Gas					$35
AccountsPayable						$35

When you paid the expense, you would write your check, and debit the
account payable rather than the expense.

AccountsPayable					$35
Bank_Accounts:Bank_of_America				$35








On Tue, 2003-01-28 at 07:33, Magellanic wrote:
> Just going nuts, googled/read the help page/first time using this kind
> of program,  Say I entered a bill to the Expenses section, but how do I
> tell gnucash that the bill is Paid or not Paid.?
> 
> Any Help is appreciated.
> Thank You.
> 
> 
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