Dealing with the arcane UK clearing system
Edward Grace
ej.grace at imperial.ac.uk
Tue Oct 30 14:09:26 EDT 2007
I agree with other people that this "shouldn't be necessary", however
when importing OFX (or quicken) statements from my various accounts I
want to be able to sensibly reconcile them with one another - without
duplication.
If I don't use the "funds in transit" approach then it's a pain.
Money appears twice in the same account some times. Imagine the
following:
1) Download my current account .OFX (checking account in the US) -
let's say I've moved 1000.00 to my savings account. When working
through the list of transactions I select the destination to credit
as my savings account.
2) Download my savings account .OFX - when working through these
transactions I select the incoming 1000.00 (which has a different
date to the previous outgoing one) as coming from my current account.
I now end up with two transactions depositing 1000.00 in my savings
account - all rather confusing.
I've settled on the following:
1) A placeholder "Asset" account called "Clearing", under which I
have names corresponding to the same accounts as in the Assets, e.g.
Assets
+- Current Account
+- Savings Account
+-Clearing
+- Current Account
+- Savings Account
This way when I import the Current account OFX transfers to my
savings account are not made to Assets:Savings account but to
Assets:Clearing:Savings account.
When I import the Savings account OFX transfers incoming cash does
not come from Assets:Current Account but from Assets:Clearing:Current
Account.
This now makes sense to me. Does it sound like the "right thing to do"?
By parking the money in 'Clearing:<blah>' I'm also curious to see how
much "The Man" makes from me in limbo interest... ;-)
Thanks all,
-ed
On 30 Oct 2007, at 17:08, Keith A. Milner wrote:
> On Tuesday 30 October 2007 16:46:41 Alexander Titov wrote:
>> gnu cash is intended to record your company's operations rather then
>> your bank's operations. So record the transfer transaction with
>> the date
>> your company decided to do it. You can ask your bank for moving
>> money a
>> few days later. When the money is transferred by bank and you see
>> them
>> at statement - check the cleared flag on the transaction.
>>
>
> I agree.
>
> This sort of excruciating transactional detail isn't normally
> required. Even
> large organisations don't normally record it unless banking or
> other related
> transactions are part of their core business.
>
> By the way, I don't believe this is due to the UK being more arcane
> than any
> other banking system. From my experience, European banking seems to
> be more
> modern than some other Western banking systems I have experienced.
> Clearing
> delays happen in many banking systems and, these days, I suspect
> they are
> partly an artificial way of making more money from you.
>
> Cheers,
>
> --
> Keith Milner
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