Handling payments in advance

[Oliver Kiddle]

With some expenses, the actual payments need to be made in advance of
when whatever is paid for is consumed. This is particularly the case
with things like holidays. What I'd like to do is have this expense
appear in reports against the date when it was consumed without
compromising the accuracy of dates for transfers from my asset accounts.

To achieve this, I can use a third account. When I make a payment, I
have two transfers with different dates: my bank account to the
"Payments in Advance" account and from the "Payments in Advance" account
to the expense.

The problem is that I'm not sure what account type I should use for the
payments in advance account. It isn't an asset and neither is it an
expense. An equity perhaps? A/Receivable is perhaps the closest?
Or is there a better way to handle this?

Oliver