Record a transaction with no amount

[Geert Janssens]

On Saturday 10 April 2010, . wrote:
> I want to record a transaction with no amount in it.
> 
> Sometimes I don't need to pay the utility company if there is a credit
> on my account from the previous month.
> 
> I still want to record the amount of natural gas and electricity I use
> over a month's period of time but with a credit to my utility account I
> can't enter an amount.
> 
> Any ideas how to solve this?
> 
How have you booked the credit from the previous month ?

If the amount payed then was more than was actually invoiced, this overpayment 
should have been transferred to some account as well.

When the next invoice comes in this is "paid for" by the credit of the 
previous month from the account you recorded the overpayment in.

An example in numbers:

Suppose for Februari you get an invoice for 100 units of gas, say equivalent 
of 100 €. However, in Februari, you paid 150€ to the company.

So you get one transaction with 3 splits:
Checking account             -150
Utility:gas                  +100
Liability:Credit with vendor  +50

Then your March invoice comes in, for 50 units of gas (to keep it simple), 
equivalent of 50 €. Since you paid too much last month, you don't have to pay 
the utility company this month. However, you still enter one transaction to 
account for the credit from last month and the addition of gas this month:
Utility:gas                   +50
Liability:Credit with vendor  -50

In the end, all accounts are balanced. You can use the account Utility:gas to 
keep track of the amount of gas for a month's period, while the checking 
account keeps track of your payments.

This simplified example assumes the payment and invoice are processed at the 
exact same time. This rarely happens, but the example shows the basic 
principles of double entry accounting.

In the real world, the situation is usually as follows:
1. You pay some amount to the utility company early in the month:
Checking account           -150
Liability:Accounts payable +150

2. Then your invoice arrives, for only 100€ worth of gas
Utility:gas                +100
Liability:Accounts payable -100

At this point, your credit for the utility company is 50€, which is reflected 
in the balance of Liability:Accounts payable (150 - 100 = 50)

3. In March you don't pay, because you still have credit, but near the end of 
it you get your next invoice, for 50€ worth of gas:
Utility:gas                 +50
Liability:Accounts payable  -50

Again, you can track the real amount of gas via Utility:gas, your credit via 
Liability:Accounts payable and your payments via Checking account.


Geert