Entering the monthly bills

[Andrew Sackville-West]

Jeff Smith wrote:
> 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.

depends on when you want to record the expenses: at the time the bill is 
issued, recieved or paid.

> 
> 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.

this records the expense at the time the bill is paid. If you are 
tracking your expenses monthly but say the power bill for Nov comes in 
Dec and gets paid in Dec then you are recording Novembers expense in 
Dec. If this is what you want, then great.

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

this is the same thing as using A/P (which is a liability) so why not do 3)?
> 
> 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?

depends on what you consider overkill. I find it easy fairly easy to 
use, though there are some UI usability issues (too much clicking for my 
taste, but it works). There is some setup overhead, but it gives you 
nice reminders... If you upgrade to a newer version (ref your other 
thread), the "Payable Aging" report includes an option to display ALL 
vendors, not just those with outstanding balances and is a really nice 
interface for working with payables.

for simple home book-keeping, its probably overkill, but would certainly 
work. (how's that for a wishy-washy non-answer?)


> 
> Is there a way to have the simplicity of Option 1 and still get reminders?

post-it notes all over your monitor? ;)

-a