Accounting periods problem

[Dale Alspach]

I think you are missing what some of the others have already said.
The important date is the date of the expense. In order to have both the
date of the bill and a (different) date  for the expense, you will need two
transactions. You will also need an intermediate account such as accrued
expenses.


When you get the bill you need to show a credit to a liability account
but if the expense is in a different period you do not want the other
side of the transaction to be an expense on that date. Instead make
the other side a debit to accrued expense.  Next enter a transaction to
credit the accrued expense account and debit the actual expense account
and use the date for the proper accounting period.

Dale Alspach