How to account for a purchase on credit card with reimbursement

[Adam Funk]

On 2008-05-03, Jannick Asmus wrote:

> how to account for a payment of, say, a latte with credit card which is 
> reimbursed by the company I am with. The credit card bill is charged to 
> my personal bank account.
...
> Comments are encouraged and, of course, are welcomed.

Well, here's how I do it:


1. purchase: one of these transactions for each one

  Dr Assets:Receivables:Expense Claims:{Employer}
  Cr Liabilities:Credit cards:{Specific card}

2. reimbursement (done with payroll, so this is a monthly split)

  Dr Assets:Current:Main bank account
  Dr Expenses:Income tax
  Cr Income:Salary:{Employer}
  Cr Assets:Receivables:Expense claims:{Employer}

3. paying the bill (once a month, for the whole balance)

  Dr Liabilities:Credit cards:{Specific card}
  Cr Assets:Current:Main bank account


Only for item 1 do I show individual purchases.  Item 3 is for the
whole credit card bill, which may or may not include some expense
claims.  I also use the cleared/reconciled column in the expense
claims account ("c" means the item has been submitted on a claim; "y"
means I've been reimbursed for it).


I welcome comments too.  I made this system up but it makes sense to
me based on what I used to know about accounting.