Client Expenses - how to account for

[Marc Croteau]

Thanks Des....

You've cleared up a few uncertainties that I had.
The system seems to work fine as we've been discussing.
When the invoice information is automatically inserted, in the income
account on the invoice, I insert "other income: reimbursed Expenses".  I fix
up GST information and send the invoice off to the client.
I pay my bill (to myself) from the corporations chequeing account.
When the payment comes in, I debit the A/R and Credit my chequing

Regards
Marc

On Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 5:37 PM, Des Dougan <des at douganconsulting.com> wrote:

> Marc,
>
> Firstly, you should Reply All, so that the thread continues on the mailing
> list.
>
> On 31 Jul 2009, at 13:20, Marc Croteau wrote:
>
>  Hi Des,
>>
>> Thanks for replying.
>>
>> The way I've set up my business (I'm incorporated) is that I'm a vendor to
>> my business.  I incur some costs working on behalf of specific clients.
>>  When I record these costs, I create a bill to the corporation.  When I set
>> up the bill, I record the the client chargeback information and the client
>> job information on the bill and I also tick off the last column in the bill
>> (the bi field).   I post the bill to A/P:marc- clientExpenses.
>>
>
> What does the "Bi" field do - I've never used it.
>
> Generally, though, what you have done here is fine. I don't create bills
> for my own time, but I do for goods I resell (hardware and software).
>
>
>> The problem happens when I want to invoice a client.
>> When I start a new invoice and insert the client and job name, the posted
>> expenses show up automatically in the invoice.  That's a good thing.
>>  However, the income account is blank, the GST information is lost, and the
>> Invoice Attached (2nd column) is blank. ...I can fix up the GST info but I'm
>> at a lost for what income account to use (I could create an income account
>> called reimbursed expenses).
>>
>
> I wouldn't say GST is lost - it's just not yet calculated, as it's not
> necessarily a field that should be automatic. For example, here in Canada, I
> am registered with my main vendor so that I do not pay PST (Provincial Sales
> Tax) on stuff I buy from them. I do, however, pay GST. When I charge my
> client for the equipment I've acquired for them, I charge PST and GST (it's
> set up as a single tax type). So there is not an automatic relationship
> there.
>
> I have a number of different income accounts - Income:Consulting Services
> for my billable time; Income:Sales:Hardware Sales and Income:Sales:Hardware
> Sales:Server Hardware for different types of hardware (and similar account
> types for software). It's basically what makes most sense for you (and for
> your accountant).
>
>
>> Forgetting for a moment that I need to take care of the above issues, I
>> want to add my time to this invoice.  My time goes against Revenue:
>> Consulting Income.  Now, without expenses in the mix, I would post this
>> invoice to A/R: Consulting.  When I have a mixture of expense and consulting
>> income, would I create a new kind of A/R called Consulting&Expenses.
>>
>
> I just have one AR account, under Assets. Not sure why you would need more
> - the granularity is in the Income and Expenditure accounts if you need to
> do analysis. Do you have Income and Revenue account types, from what I read
> above? Not sure why you need two types for what are basically the same
> thing.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Des
>
>
>
>
>> So... all to say, I'm at a lost on how best to proceed.
>>
>> Do you have any thoughts on the matter?
>>
>> Regards,
>> and thanks for the help so far
>> Marc
>>
>> On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 2:05 PM, Des Dougan <des at douganconsulting.com>
>> wrote:
>> Marc,
>>
>>
>> On 30 Jul 2009, at 15:57, Marc Croteau wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I run a small business and some months ago decided to use Gnucash for my
>> books.
>>
>> I've had a small problem and it may be conceptual more than anything
>> else.  It has to do with client expenses.
>>
>> I bill clients for my time (I'm a consultant) and occasionally for
>> expenses (such as travel, photocopying etc).  I don't seem to have a
>> good way to record the expenses such that I can produce a single invoice
>> that records both my time and my expense against a client.  This would
>> allow me to receive payments against an invoice and have both my time
>> and the expenses paid for.
>>
>> Can you suggest a way of recording expenses against both a category of
>> expense AND a client?
>>
>> Any insights would be greatly appreciated.
>> Thank you in advance
>> Marc Croteau
>>
>>
>>
>> You can create a client expense type or types in the Expenses Account and
>> add a line to the invoice for each type of expense you bill for. Unless I'm
>> missing something, it's fundamentally the same as me billing for a hardware
>> sale as well as the set-up consulting cost.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Des
>> --
>>
>> Des Dougan
>> Principal
>> Dougan Consulting Group Inc.
>>
>> Office:         604-628-5434
>> Cell:           604-866-2848
>> Email:          des at DouganConsulting dot com
>>
>>       www.DouganConsulting.com
>>
>> Peace of Mind, One Computer at a Time.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
> --
>
> Des Dougan
> Principal
> Dougan Consulting Group Inc.
>
> Office:         604-628-5434
> Cell:           604-866-2848
> Email:          des at DouganConsulting dot com
>
>        www.DouganConsulting.com
>
> Peace of Mind, One Computer at a Time.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


-- 
bye for now
Marc