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

[Jane Stowe]

Hi Maf,

I prob wasn't clear in the first mail....it's the playgroup that's using
Gnucash, not me. For most of their vendors/suppliers, it is the case whereby
they receive the goods/services & pay at the end of the month etc, so the
accrual accounting is what's needed. However there are always some suppliers
whereby you need to pay up front & as the playgroup doesn't have a credit
card at the mo, then I end up paying for it & when I remember to bring in
the scrunched up receipts that I find in pockets then I'll be repaid. When I
read your mail about using CreditCard & Assets:EmployerExpenses....is this
when you're using Gnucash to track your own finances/bank accounts? Or am I
just picking that up wrong? I'm not tracking my finances (although I prob
should!lol), it's the playgroup's finances that I'm tracking. But maybe I
could use the CreditCard concept anyway...at some stage the playgroup will
have their own credit card, so I wouldn't be paying for it, so in the
meantime I could see myself as a 'quasi' credit card account & get around it
that way?...might play round with that (haven't looked at the credit card
docs before) or am I barking up the wrong tree completely?
In the second part of your mail you said about maybe just needing to change
the debits & credits around....I had done that but that's when I ended up
getting the total in the Imbalance account cos iif it was being credited
(withdrawn) from the current account, it couldn't also be credited (paid) on
the expense accounts also as wouldn't balance...this was cos I had already
applied the invoices (debited) the expense accounts via the vendors. If I
wasn't using vendors then I wouldn't have a prob with the Imbalance bit.

Might be rambling a bit too...

On 4 February 2011 21:03, Maf. King <maf at chilwell.net> wrote:

> 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.
>
>