Phantom bill

[Wouter van Marle]

On Mon, 2010-08-23 at 11:58 -0400, Derek Atkins wrote:
> Wouter van Marle <wouter at squirrel-systems.com> writes:
> 
> > On Sat, 2010-08-21 at 16:07 -0400, Derek Atkins wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >> 
> >> Wouter van Marle <wouter at squirrel-systems.com> writes:
> >> 
> >> > Sorry call me a 'luser' but I follow the adagio "if nothing else works,
> >> > read the manual". So that's also this case; and I wouldn't be surprised
> >> > if other users also have run into the same problem.
> >> >
> >> > Any suggestions on how to clear this up?
> >> 
> >> Umm...  Your best be would be to delete the offending transactions; the
> >> replayed business transactions.
> >
> > In case of invoices that works, no problem.
> >
> > However his is a bill, and it's not possible to delete it by hand -
> > trying to do so gives a popup suggesting to unpost the bill instead.
> 
> Not sure what you mean here.  An Invoice transaction and a Bill
> transaction should behave exactly the same way!

> One thing you might try is deleting it from the *other* account?  I.e.,
> don't delete it from A/R or A/P, but from the Income or Expense
> account.  However, this still might not work.

Both the liability and the payables accounts give the message:
"Cannot modify or delete this transaction.

this transaction is marked read-only with the
comment: 'Generated from an invoice. Try unposting
the invoice.'"

This was the first I tried (except trying from the other side; expecting
no difference) to get rid of the offending transaction. The problem here
is that it is the bill transaction itself, not the payment for that bill
(which indeed can be deleted/changed manually). Invoices work indeed the
same in that respect.

> > So I'm looking for a way to introduce balancing transactions to
> > compensate for this. Like a negative invoice, which is an issue in
> > itself of course for GnuCash - but no idea how that could be solved.
> 
> Negative Invoice == Process Payment.  But then your lots will be all
> screwed up.

Well insofar a "negative invoice" would also decrease my COGS account,
which a payment doesn't do (or can one safely post a payment to a COGS
account?).

It seems the best solution here is to take another invoice (with larger
amount), and deduct the exact same amount from that invoice. Then I just
have to try and set some comments here and there as a reminder on why
this is done that way... just in case some accountant wants to have a
look.

Wouter.

> 
> > Wouter.
> 
> -derek
>