"Double Dating" transactions?

[Dave Reed]

On Tuesday 31 August 2004 19:46, Bill Wisse wrote:
> On Tuesday 31 August 2004 09:59, JIm wrote:
> > Thomas John Vitolo wrote:
> > > Good sirs and madams:
> > >
> > > Is it possible to "double date" a transaction?
> >
> > Not that I know of.
> > I have found that when I feel the need to  "double date" a 
transaction,
> > what I really want to do is do two transactions.  That is take that 
money
> > out of one account and put it in another account on the first date, 
and
> > then take it out of that account and put it into a third on the 
second
> > date.
> >
> > As an example, you may want to take money out of income and put it 
into a
> > taxes paid account on one date (to get the tax paid in the right 
year) and
> > then when you get that rebate, it would come come
>
>  All in all it is an interesting question and we really haven't seen 
any 
> straight forward solution.
> Are there no accountants on this list to give us an answer? :-)

There were some accountants on the list, but I don't know if they
still are reading and contributing. But in any case, all us
non-accountants have given you the way accountants do it. Accounts
Receivable/Accounts Payable are the standard solution to these
problems.

Here is part of your reply from an earlier message:

  I created a "Tax Refund 2003" account under the tax header, but this
  tax header, by itself, gives me a wrong figure because it takes away
  the refunded tax from the tax I already paid.

The "Tax Refund 2003" account should not be under the tax header - it
should be an asset under your main Assets header (or an accounts
receivable asset if you have one) and I would call it "Tax Refund" w/o
a year so you can reuse it for each year. Here's how it works assuming
your fiscal year is the calendar year:

1. let's say you do figure taxes on Feb. 1st (you're in a hurry
   because you're getting a refund). On Feb. 1st you enter a
   transaction with a Dec. 31st (of the previous year) date using the
   Tax Refund asset account and the Tax expense account. Between
   Dec 31st and Feb. 1st your financial reports regarding taxes are
   not correct. But once you enter this transaction, your accounts are
   correct and you've indicated you will be receiving a refund (this
   is an account receivable).

2. let's say you get your refund check on April 30th. On April 30th
   (or whenever you deposit the check) you enter a transaction with
   that date using the Tax Refund asset account and the Cash account
   where you deposit the check.

IANAA but I have read most of an accounting 101 book.

HTH,
Dave