Bill amount <> check amount

[Derek Atkins]

Phil <sublime78ska at comcast.net> writes:

>> How did you record the second bill?  Did you record it as $X?  or $X+0.11?
>
> The second bill was recorded as X.  At the time, I didn't know the
> reason for the 11 cents.  And then I paid the second bill.

Uh, wait..  This and what you say below conflict.

>> Before you go off and do this, it very much depends on how you
>> recorded it.  Did you record the $0.11 twice?  Or not..  How you
>> correct that very much depends on how you recorded it in the first
>> place.
>
> Yes, the 11 cents is billed twice.  Once because the actual check was 11
> cents less than it should have been, and second time because the utility
> carried the balance forward onto the next bill.
>
> The better way to handle this, then, is to NOT do it the way I suggested
> but to enter the next bill as .11 less.  Right?

Ok.  In January you pay the bill minus $0.11.  In Febrary you get a
new bill for a total of $20.11.  $20 is the Februrary charge, and
$0.11 is the carryover from January.  In this case you should input
the bill as $20, not $20.11, because the $0.11 carryover from january
has already been booked!

If you input the febrary bill as $20.11 then you've accounted for that
$0.11 TWICE, and you will have over-accounted for your expense.

When entering a bill, you should ALWAYS enter in the _new charges_
only.  Never include rolled-over charges.

Similarly, when you pay the bill(s), you should enter the exact amount
that you write the check.

So, let's take the same example again.  You underpaid January by
$0.11.  Feb bill comes, $20.00 new charges plus the $0.11 carryover.
You enter a new bill for $20.00, and then enter a payment of $20.11.
The $0.11 will get back-billed to the previous month, and then the
"leftover" $20.00 will get applied to february.

In the case where you accounted for and paid the $20.11 before you
realized it was double-booked, you can recover in march by doing the
reverse.  First, you fixed the january payment to match the actual
check (so you're $0.11 short).  Then in february you over-billed
yourself by $0.11 (double-booking the expense).  In march you can fix
that by entering the bill as $0.11 UNDER the actual bill (if the bill
is $20.00, you book it as $19.89), but then you still apply the
payment as $20.00.  The system will then apply the payments to both
the outstanding $0.11 and the newly-outstanding "$19.89."

I hope this all makes sense, now?

Ideally, however, you should unpost the febrary bill, fix the expense
amount so it's actually correct, and then repost it.

> Thanks for your feedback!
>
> Phil

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available