Bill System Questions

[Des Dougan]

I use the business features for my own business, so I will try to  
answer your questions.
On 23 Mar 2009, at 19:30, David T. wrote:

>
> I am trying out the Business functions for the first time (using  
> them to track bills I receive and then pay them), and I have run  
> into some things I do not understand. I will focus on Gnucash  
> interface issues here, and will try to grok the accounting side  
> separately. Please keep in mind that IANAA, just a home user of  
> Gnucash.
>
> 1) If I accidentally create a bill, how do I delete it?

AFAIK, you can't - it should be marked inactive.
>
>
> 2) On a related note, once a bill is in the system, where does it  
> go? I have registers for everything else, but not for bills...
>
> 3) Is there some way to see a list of all out-standing bills? GC  
> seems to only be able to give me one vendor's bills at a time...

Look at the Payables Aging report.

>
> 4) Could someone explain why there is no button on the Bill details  
> screen to get the user to indicate that they want to commit a bill?  
> There is no action to "enter the bill." Most other transaction  
> registers have some sort of confirmation action--as when one is  
> asked whether an open transaction should be saved or discarded when  
> a register is closed.

Post it. It's an icon on the right end of the toolbar.

>
> 5) For some reason, when I assign a line on a bill to one of my  
> expense accounts, the expense does not turn up in the associated  
> expense account, as I would expect. Is this normal behavior, or is  
> something wrong? [It was this point that led to questions 1 to 4]

No, not normal - I just checked a recent bill and then went to the  
expense account, and the other side of the transaction is there.

>
> 6) When processing a payment, I note that the dialog box includes  
> text input boxes that cannot be used directly; you have to use the  
> select button. These controls should not be text input boxes, since  
> they cannot take text input. At the least, they should be grayed out.
>
>
> 7) When searching for a bill to pay from the Process Payment window,  
> the search results window re-uses the general results window.  
> Unfortunately, this window includes a Process Payment button, which  
> leads the unsuspecting stupid user (me) into a foggy haze trying to  
> figure out where they are in the Process Payment process.

If you use the Payables Aging report (and Receivables Aging for your  
invoices), you can select the sum owed, click on the Bill link to see  
the bill you created, then select Business, Pay Invoice. To me, it's a  
cleaner process.

Regards,

Des

>
>
> Thanks,
> David
>
>
>
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--

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.