creditcard reconciliation impossible

[A.J. Bonnema]

Anthony wrote:
> But to go back to your question, I don't see what the problem is, and
> I don't think using accounts payable is a good solution.  When you do
> the reconciliation, you only mark as reconciled the charges and
> payments that appear on the statement.  The "ending balance" and
> "reconciled balance" will then be equal.  They might not be equal to
> zero, though.  The balance would only be zero if there were no
> purchases during the period, or if the payment posts in the same
> period.

Okee, I get that. This balances out the expences, but it does not 
balance out the payments.

However......
the bank *does* transfer money to the credit card company equal to the 
sum of the expences.

It's just that the date it does it is not equal to the cc-company's 
statement but is a week later.
(on the statement the cc-company states it will charge the bank in about 
a week, so it's sort of a loan).

> 
> Which brings me to a question.  When *does* the payment P1 appear on
> the credit card statement?  Is it reflected in the statement S1?  If
> so, you need to make sure you enter the payment as of *that date*, not
> the date the payment clears the bank.

The payment P1 only appears on the bank statement with the date it was 
charged by the cc-company. The statement of the cc-company is of an 
earlier date and never shows the payment. It does show the amount it is 
going to charge, which is equal to the amount of P1.

> 
> Anthony
> 
> 

Okee, I am not an accountant, so my reasoning might be faulty. But as 
far as I can see it appears that the cc-company postpones payment of an 
amount I do owe them. That's why the A/payable account appears to be a 
reasonable solution to the time difference.

Does all this make sense to you?

Guus.
-- 
A.J. Bonnema, Leiden The Netherlands,
user #328198 (Linux Counter http://counter.li.org)