Cash vs Accrual Accounting and Cygwin/X

[Victor Chudnovsky]

I do something similar with money I lend people, except that I have it
in a person-specific ¨Asset" account:
Assets:
   Bank
   Loans to John
   etc.
Etc.

Thus, if I write a $20 check to John, my bank balance decreases and my
"Loans to John" assets increase. My total assets stay the same (since
the $20 is still money that is rightfully mine), but by delving into
each account I can see how much is on hand (in the bank) and how much is
being held by others (loans).

Victor

On Thu, 2006-01-12 at 11:59 -0500, Derrick Hudson wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 10, 2006 at 04:25:30PM -0500, Derek Atkins wrote:
> | Quoting Andrew Sackville-West <andrew at farwestbilliards.com>:
> | 
> | >I don't use cash accounting, but seems to me an organized person can 
> | >just post the invoice on the day they PLAN to pay it and then just 
> | >remember (heh) to pay iton that day. maybe post it with a posting and 
> | >due date set the same. I don't know, just ideas.
> | 
> | That doesn't work when the 'payment' is incoming..  You have no idea when
> | a customer is going to pay you.  But you want to keep the posted invoice
> | on the books so you remember that you are owed the money.
> 
> As far as tracking money that is owed ... here's the technique I've
> been using for a couple years now.  Note that I am not a business (or
> an accountant) and thus this may not work for real invoicing.
> 
> I have an account of type 'Expense' called "Placeholders" (with the
> 'placeholder' property set).  Under that I have expense accounts for
> each person that may owe me money.  For some of them I break down the
> category of the money owed (eg portion of phone bill or whatever).
> When I pay for something that someone will owe me for, I use that
> person's placeholder account instead of one of my own expense
> accounts.  When they pay me back, it also goes to that expense account
> to negate the balance.
> 
> Here's a simple picture of the accounts and two transactions:
> 
> Accounts:
>     Assets
>         [...]
>     Expenses
>         [...]
>     Placeholders
>         John Doe    (maybe a roommate, friend or relative)
>         Jane Doh    (likewise)
>         [...]
> 
> Transaction 1: purchase
> 
>    Date  Description   Account                Debit Credit
>    ----  ------------  ---------------------  ----  -----
>    12/3            
>          paid bill     Checking                      40
>          my portion    Expense:Foo            20
>          other portion Placeholders:John Doe  20
> 
> This shows that I wrote a check for $40, $20 of it is my
> responsibility and $20 is John's and thus he owes me.
> 
> Transaction 2: payment from John
> 
>    Date   Description   Account                Debit Credit
>    -----  ------------  ---------------------  ----  -----
>    12/20           
>           deposit       Checking               20       
>           for bill      Placeholders:John Doe         20
> 
> And now the balance on John's account is back to $0 meaning he doesn't
> owe me.  This works just as well if I buy something at a store (credit
> card) and deposit John's payment in my checking account.
> 
> This technique also works in reverse -- if someone else pays for
> something and I owe them.  The transactions are mostly the same, just
> switch the columns in trans #1 and apply it to an expense instead of
> an asset account.  Then when I pay them back, the money comes from my
> checking to that person's placeholder account.
> 
> Oh, and since I am using an Expense account, not an Asset, to track
> what I am owed, the "net assets" summary doesn't include these
> amounts.  That is probably good when you don't have the cash yet, but
> probably bad when you owe someone (since then it says you have the
> cash, but you've really already spent it).
> 
> -D
> 
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> -----
> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.