Invoice credit for wire transfer fees?

[Kevin T. Broderick]

On Mar 23, 2005, at 1:34 PM, Andrew Sackville-West wrote:

> Process your invoices received for the full amount of the invoice 
> (before the deduction for wire fees) into a "Undeposited Funds" asset 
> account. Then make a "bank deposit" by transfering the NET amount 
> (after the wire fees) from Undeposited Funds into your gnucash account 
> for the bank account. Split the transaction and show a debit to 
> undeposited funds for the full amount of invoice, a credit to an 
> expense account called "banking fees" or "wire fees" or whatever, and 
> a credit to the bank account for the balance. It'll look like this:
>
> [example CHOMPed[

>  That way the Net amount goes into the bank account, you record an 
> expense for the wire transfer, you record your income at the amount 
> actually billed, and your A/R stay current. I hope the above layout is 
> reasonably clear. Select all and set "fixed width font" if its not.
>

[original situation CHOMPed]

What if the scenario is that the vendor (the original poster, in this 
case) wants to discount the invoice by the amount of the wire fund 
charge instead of showing it as a revenue and expense?  I'm not sure 
what benefits may or may not result, as some scenarios make posting 
greater revenue (even with greater expenses) desirable, and some 
encourage the reverse, but I know I've heard of businesses seeking to 
minimize posted revenue.

(feel free to tell me that discounting the invoice, rather than 
pretending to be paid in full and taking an expense hit, would be a 
violation of GAAP and/or legal requirements, if that is the case--IANA 
but I find accounting practices interesting for some bizarre reason.)

Kevin Broderick / kbroderick at smcvt.edu