Accounting Question Regarding Loans

[Phil Frost]

On Thu, Feb 03, 2011 at 08:20:50AM -0700, Mark Phillips wrote:
> I am running a US not for profit 501c3 club softball team. We have an
> outside batting coach come once a week to give batting lessons. Each player
> pays $15 to the club, which is considered by the IRS to be a donation and I
> have to keep track of how much each person donates per year to the club. The
> club pays $150 to the batting coach for each lesson. there are 2 teams, 12U
> and 14U.
> 
> I have 2 sub accounts under checking - 12U Batting and 14U Batting, An
> income account for each club member, and and 2 expense accounts: 12U Batting
> and 14U Batting.
> 
> 1. take $15 from a 12U player
> Debit 12U Batting checking account, credit Income account for that person
> 
> 2. Pay a check for 12U batting
> Debit 12U Batting expense and credit 12U batting checking account
> 
> 3. How do I account for a parent who does not pay that night and pays later?
> I looked at the personal loan example in the help file, but I am missing
> something
> Debit the asset account - money owed from a person, but I can't credit the
> income account for that person because they have not paid yet. Where does
> the offsetting entry go?
> 
> What if I need to collect $ for a tournament fee. I pay the fee, and one
> parent is late in paying. I would debit the tournament expense and credit
> the checking account, but I need to keep track of the fact that a person
> owes me for their portion of the tournament fee.

Sounds like you want "Accounts Receivable". There is a feature in
gnucash by this name, and it is also a generic accounting concept. Using
the A/R system in gnucash gets you a database of vendors and customers.
Depending on your needs, it may be simpler to simply create asset
accounts for each person that may owe you money.