Different dates for same transaction

[Ben Pracht]

...

>That sounds ok, except the transactions are likely to have different
>dates. I suppose to be 100% proper, I need a "Money that is floating
>between my bank account and my credit card" account, which the money
>sits in for the few days between when I pay the bill and when it gets
>credited to my account.
>
>Cheers
>
>Andy
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 2
>Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 07:14:13 +1100
>From: E Dodd <edodd at billiau.net>
>Subject: Re: Newbie Question: Double entry and imported data
>To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>Message-ID: <200502090714.13483.edodd at billiau.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>On Wednesday 09 February 2005 04:21, Andrew Grafham wrote:
>
>  
>
>>That sounds ok, except the transactions are likely to have different
>>dates. I suppose to be 100% proper, I need a "Money that is floating
>>between my bank account and my credit card" account, which the money
>>sits in for the few days between when I pay the bill and when it gets
>>credited to my account.
>>
>>    
>>
>
>there was lots of discussion last week about this, and the 'old-hands' 
>reckoned it doesn't matter.
>liz
>
>  
>
I have this problem to a somewhat greater extent.  I try to manage my 
checking account in such a way that I have as litte cash as necessary 
for payments, keeping the rest to either pay down debts or for 
investing.  Unfortunately, if I don't time things the way the bank does, 
it goes into overdraft which costs money first for the transfer, then 
interest on an amount larger than I actually needed.
Further, my credit card is due on the 15th, but they actually draft on 
the 20th or the 21st, then back date it for their records to the 15th.  
I can work around this, but it would be nice to have the program note 
date differences.  Yes, reconciliation still works, but it makes cash 
management more difficult if you can't get the banks dates to agree with 
the dates entered.

As for the date entered, it appears that it is intended to be the 
transaction date, not the date the gnucash user posted it, as previously 
stated.  I say that because their's a separate date field in the data 
file which says something like date entered. 

Ben