Cashflow report and negative expenses

Derek Atkins warlord at MIT.EDU
Sun Jan 11 09:47:35 CST 2004


I believe the report is correct.  The report is measuring FLOW.  In
and Out do not mean "Income and Expense"..  It means the direction of
flow of cash.  When you have a rebate, a negative expense, it *IS*
cash flowing back in.

If you spend $100 on Jan 1st and get a $30 rebate on Jan 3rd, this
really should be recorded as $30 in, $100 out in the cash flow report.
The net is still $70, but the report is telling you that you put out
$100 and got back $30, which is exactly what happened.

-derek

"Conor O'Neill" <Conor at puddle.co.uk> writes:

> The discussion started by cosmodog about the cash flow report reminded
> me about another issue which I have with that report.
>
> Occasionally I incur 'negative expenses'. This is, for instance, when I
> get a refund of some money which I have spent on an expense. In GnuCash,
> I will post that to the expense account, but with a negative amount.
>
> However, the Cash flow report then lists this as income, instead of
> adjusting the size of the expense.
>
> For example, if I spend £100 on an expense, and then get £30 back, I
> would like to see this reported as an expense of £70. GnuCash's cash
> flow report instead tells me I have a separate £30 income and £100
> expense.
>
> I can understand the logic behind this, but I don't myself agree with
> it. Does anyone else have any particular opinions on this.
>
> I suspect that a summary of my view would be to say: Income and Expense
> accounts are identical. If more money (in total) comes out than goes in,
> it should be listed as an 'income' category. If more goes in than comes
> out, it is an expense.
>
> Comments?
>
> -- 
> Conor O'Neill, Bristol, UK
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user at lists.gnucash.org
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>
>

-- 
       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


More information about the gnucash-user mailing list