gnucash and accrual accounting

[Buddha Buck]

On Wed, Dec 26, 2012 at 2:08 PM, Kash <kash at warmplanetbikes.com> wrote:
> 1.) Is it correct that I can generally use billing and invoicing for accrual
> rather than setting up my own manual system of A/P accounts? Are there any
> foreseeable drawbacks?

I believe this is what the billing and invoicing system was set up for.

> 2.) How do I split payments so that they show up across several periods in
> the income statement, but are actually paid and appear on the cash flow as
> one payment? For example, I have a continuous service that I'd like to
> appear on monthly P&L, but that is actually paid annually?

I have a similar situation: I am accounting for memberships in an
organization, and want the memberships to show up as monthly income
(even though some people may annually).  My solution was to invoice
monthly (so for someone who joined in December 2012, I would enter
invoices posted December, 2012, January 2013, etc through November
2013), and then enter their annual payment as of the date they paid.
The billing and invoicing system automatically applies the payment to
the oldest unpaid invoices in turn, meaning that all 12 will be marked
"paid"; the "customer report" for each member who has paid annually
shows a large credit which decreases over the course of the year, and
the cash flow and balance sheet reflects where they money actually is.
 The only oddity is that A/R typically shows a negative balance, but
that's a reasonable way of looking at the situation.