Entering a credit

[Robert G Palmer Jr]

Well, this sounded like the perfect approach, it would allow me to  
continue to use the exact same pair of accounts: Income:Fees and  
Asset:AR then just post an invoice with the credit amount.  In the  
original invoice, I'm taking money out of Income:Fees and putting it  
into Asset:AR and in the credit, I would be doing the opposite (due  
to using negative numbers).  However, when I try to post this  
invoice, I get an error dialog:

---> "You may not post an invoice with a negative total value."

The problem with a trying to post a payment is that, while Asset:AR  
is available, no income accounts are available (only Asset and  
Liability accounts) so I can't reverse the Income:Fees to Asset:AR  
transfer that was created with the invoice.

So I guess I'm back to square one.

Again, the question - isn't the ability to post a credit a pretty  
critical requirement for a business?

Robert

On Jan 12, 2009, at 12:33 PM, gnucash at ew.ewheeler.org wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, 12 Jan 2009, Robert G Palmer Jr wrote:
>
>> Yes, you could record as a payment, which is my current work around.
>> I created a "Income:Misc Credits" account and make payments using
>> that as the Income account.  The problem is that this is NOT correct
>> double entry book-keeping.  A payment INCREASES the amount in an
>> INCOME account.  This credit should really DECREASE the amount in the
>> A/R account.
>
> Create a new invoice with a qty of -1 and a dollar amount in the  
> amount of the credit (or, qty=1 and negative dollar amount).  You  
> could apply this to the Income:Misc Credits account which will go  
> negative to reflect that your total income is sum(income)-"misc  
> credits"  This is perhaps better than creating a negative payment  
> since creating an invoice does effect AR.
>
> -Eric
>
>>
>> Since my situation is so simple, a payment is acceptable (i.e., even
>> if I were audited, the number of transactions and where they go/come
>> from is small enough that I wouldn't have a problem).  However, the
>> correct way is a CREDIT which, as I said, DECREASES the amount in the
>> A/R account.  (I'm a bit of a perfectionist and like to do things the
>> "right" way) To be able to use this for a business, it seems that
>> CREDITS are a critical feature (am I wrong?).
>>
>> Robert
>>
>> On Jan 12, 2009, at 5:07 AM, Robert Stocks wrote:
>>
>>> I dont use the business stuff myself but could you not just record
>>> this as a payment?
>>>
>>>
>>> 2009/1/12 Robert G Palmer Jr <robertpalmerjr at mac.com>:
>>>> Specific example:
>>>>
>>>> I manage my daughter's soccer team.  Each family owes for club dues
>>>> and team fees.  Team fees are an ESTIMATE of how much it will  
>>>> cost to
>>>> attend all tournaments for the season.  As I near the end of the
>>>> season, I figure out how much it ACTUALLY cost to attend the
>>>> tournaments.
>>>>
>>>> I want to issue a credit for the difference between the ESTIMATE  
>>>> and
>>>> the ACTUAL cost.
>>>>
>>>> Unpost and reposting is not a good option for two reasons:
>>>> 1. the family already has a copy of the invoice
>>>> 2. the credit will NOT appear in the customer report as a line  
>>>> item -
>>>> the change in the customer report consists simply of the invoice
>>>> value changing (by the credited amount) so the total owed by the
>>>> customer does change, but I want them to see the credit in the
>>>> Customer Report.
>>>>
>>>> I really like the Customer Report because it shows how much each
>>>> family is expected to pay AND all payments (and hopefully credits)
>>>> they made/received during the season.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Robert
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Jan 11, 2009, at 7:38 PM, Cam Ellison wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Robert G Palmer Jr wrote:
>>>>>> I think this question may have gotten lost in the middle of the
>>>>>> other
>>>>>> questions I asked.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> How do you enter a credit in GnuCash?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If I create an Invoice for a given amount: e.g. $100, and post  
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> invoice
>>>>>> Later, for whatever reason, I decide that the customer only owes
>>>>>> $50.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> How do I enter a $50 credit in such a way that it appears on  
>>>>>> their
>>>>>> Customer Report as a credit?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> If you did not actually issue the invoice to the customer, the
>>>>> simplest
>>>>> thing is to unpost the invoice and correct it.  If the customer  
>>>>> has
>>>>> received the original invoice, you could still do this, and  
>>>>> send the
>>>>> replacement.
>>>>>
>>>>> If the customer has already paid, that's more complicated.  If  
>>>>> this
>>>>> is a
>>>>> repeat customer, and there is a new invoice, you might unpost the
>>>>> original invoice as above, and correct it.  There would then be a
>>>>> credit, which should show up on the Customer Report.  I'm
>>>>> speculating at
>>>>> this, because I rarely run the Customer Report.  The difference
>>>>> should
>>>>> show in the total, but only if you unpost and amend the original
>>>>> invoice.
>>>>>
>>>>> HTH
>>>>>
>>>>> Cam
>>>>>
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