Delays in transfers between accounts

[Doug Laidlaw]

On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 03:28:01 am Fred Bone wrote:
> Maybe this issue only affects UK accounts (though somehow I doubt it).
>
> If I transfer money from my savings account with one financial
> institution to my current ("checking") account with another, the transfer
> takes three or four working days. For example, a transfer which shows on
> my savings account statement as dated 3 April shows on my current account
> statement dated 10 April (two bank holidays and a weekend in between: bad
> timing on my part!)
>
> This is a single transaction, albeit one that doesn't happen
> instantaneously. If I store it in GnuCash as a single transaction, I can
> only give it one date.
>
> What is the "proper" way to record it? I suppose I could record it as two
> back-to-back transactions via a "suspense" account ("Money in transit"),
> but that gets messy.
>
> I have a related issue over the settlement dates of share transactions,
> which I'd also like to have match the respective statements.
>
>
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It occurred to me, that if you record checks only when they appear on your 
statement, your cashbook balance will not allow for them and will be 
artificially high.  If it is a question of avoiding unintentional overdrafts, 
you need to know what unpresented checks to allow for.  In the standard 
procedure of recording checks when they are written, this is taken care of.  
If deposits are delayed, you will have a problem.  Once again as a lawyer, it 
was a no-no to draw against a cheque (sorry, it is easier to spell it that 
way), because, if the cheque later bounced, we had spent somebody else's 
money.  We used to get special clearances regularly.  Some lawyers would get 
a special clearance on every cheque and bill the bank fees to the client, but 
really, it became part of his overhead then.    I remember when a cheque 
drawn by one of my clients ( but not on a file I was handling, thank heaven,) 
bounced after a Bank Cheque was drawn against it.  Panic broke loose.  It was 
the office accountant's fault for not clearing the cheque first.  If the 
client's cheque had not been recorded in the ledger, that could have happened 
more easily and more frequently.  That is why my auditor would not have 
allowed me to use the suggested system, if I had tried it.

HTH,

Doug.
--
I grow old, always learning new things.
-Solon, Greek lawgiver, 6th c. B.C.