How to Use Split Transactions to Pay Several Vendors (Not Just The Expense Accounts)

Maf. King maf at chilwell.net
Fri Feb 4 16:03:13 EST 2011


On Friday 04 February 2011 20:22:13 Jane Stowe wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> I've a question about split transactions. I have several vendors set up
> (e.g. grocery shop, toy shop, pharmacy etc) & when I buy items from these
> shops on behalf of the playgroup where I help out, I add these invoices to
> the specific vendor (& specific expense account like office supplies/food &
> consumables etc). Sometimes I'd have a few invoices/receipts & the
> playgroup would pay me back the total.
> So how do I use split transactions correctly to show this so that the total
> is withdrawn from the current account & the vendors balances are reduced
> accordingly?
>
> E.G. Bought from Toy Shop         50euro .......invoice allocated to the
> Toy Shop Vendor, listing expense account as Expenses: Toys & Crafts
>         Bought from Pharmacy        20euro........invoice allocated to
> Pharmacy Vendor, listing expense account as Expenses: Health & Safety
>         Bought from Grocery Shop   30euro........invoice allocated to
> Grocery Vendor, listing expense account as Expenses: Food & Consumables
>
> Playgroup transfers the total 100euro to me from their Current account .
>
> When I try using the split transaction option, I don't seem to be able to
> get it so that on each of the vendors the balance has been reduced
> accordingly to zero. Instead what I end up with is the total 100euro is
> showing as withdrawn from the Assets:Current account & the individual items
> are showing up twice in various expense accounts (like Food & Consumables)
> - obviously once from when I entered the invoice on the vendors & then
> again from the split transaction. When I try to alter this so that they're
> not showing up twice, then I end up with the total amt showing up in
> 'Imbalance'. What am I missing? I know that if it was just being split over
> the expense account WITHOUT the use of vendors, it would work fine. Any
> help/ideas? Thanks.

Hi Jane.

When you buy something on behalf of another party, (and you expect to be 
repaid, of course)  that transaction is not an expense to you.  You are 
effectively loaning the playgroup the cash (or asset).

Also, the whole vendors/customers business section of GC is really geared up 
to "accruals accounting", whereby you get a bill and actually pay it some 
time later on (eg. 30 days, end of month, etc.), which doesn't sound like it 
is the case from what you describe. 

When I buy stuff on behalf of my employer, I create a transaction between 
CreditCard and Assets:EmployerExpenses (could be a split txn if I have bought 
some personal stuff too)  - the description line shows the vendor.   Once a 
month or whatever, I have a "refunded expenses" transaction between 
Assets:EmployerExpenses and Bank:Current (which hopefully zeroes A:EE!)

I see no real reason that you couldn't enter that initial txn as a Vendor 
Bill, but I have a sneaking suspicion that GC won't let you charge a line on 
a bill to an Asset account rather than an Expense account.

The other way to do this - which I have just realised that you may be trying 
to achieve - is a split transaction to directly refund several expense 
accounts to your checking - think in terms of the refund as a "negative 
expense" and it should come good.  I think that you may just need to swap the 
debit/credit entries in the split txn.

HTH and wasn't too rambling,
Maf.



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