Entering the monthly bills

[Jeff Smith]

Having a fairly good handle now on where the money WENT, I'm starting to 
move to a forward-looking "where the money IS GOING". So instead of just 
recording bills as they get paid, I'll be entering them when they arrive 
in the mail.

The question is, what's the best way to do this? I see three alternatives.

1) Enter payments, with future dates on or before the actual bill's due 
date) as though I've paid them in the future.

2) Create a liability account (or accounts) and juggle "debt" around 
between those liability accounts and the associated expense accounts.

3) Set up an actual vendor and bill system using the business tools.

Option 1 is attractive, since I can so easily look at a future date and 
see my expected balance. The downside is that I won't get any kind of 
bill payment reminders, so I'm on my own to remember them.

Option 2 looks like a waste of time to me. I know some people like this 
style of "future debt" management, but I don't see any upsides for my setup.

Option 3 might be worthwhile. But the real question is: is it overkill?

Is there a way to have the simplicity of Option 1 and still get reminders?
-- 
Jeff Smith
Computer Science Dept.
University of Saskatchewan
http://jefficus.usask.ca