Payables Aging and Receivables Aging reports

[Maf. King]

On Tue 19 June 12 09:52:52 Stephen Grant Brown SP wrote:
> Hi All,
> I put accounts under "acccounts receivable" because I could not identify
> where the money was recorded when I processed
> the payment, ie cheques goes into separate asset accounts than cash.
> 
> How do I identify which account it went into?
> 
> Yours Sincerely Stephen Grant Brown
> 

Hi Stephen, 

Accounts receivable is where you put money that you are owed.  it is mostly a 
business concept, not usually applicable to personal book-keeping.  Typically, 
it is the place that keeps track of "invoices that have been sent, but for 
which payment has not been recieved"

Once a customer settles their invoice(s), the balance of the A/R goes down, 
usually by means of a transfer to a Bank Account, but payment in cash is 
naturally possible too.

Gnucash keeps track of this using the concept of "Customers" (under the 
Business menu).   GC provides the "recievable aging" and "customer" reports to 
help you keep track of who owes you how much.

When you create an invoice is the time to keep track of different types of 
income (eg. time, consumables sold-on, etc.) each with a different line and 
transfer account on the actual invoice.  Once the invoice is posted to A/R, 
its total balance becomes an asset (sum of money owed to you).  at the point 
of payment, you just convert an asset from one form to another.  GC correctly 
reflects this workflow.

The OP was talking about Accounts Payable, which is very similar, but used to 
keep track of the money that you owe.  This works exacly the same in GC, but 
with slightly different terminology (in capitals in the next sentence - I'm 
not shouting!).  When you recieve a BILL from a VENDOR you book each line to 
an EXPENSE account.  the Bill total becomes a LIABILITY, and when you settle, 
you reduce your Bank Balance (or cash) against the general liability pot.  All 
the tracking is done in the expense accounts levels.  

I think (but not sure) the OP is over complicating by posting a bill from 
Vendor1 to A/P:V1, and Vendor2 is posted to A/P:V2 etc.  there is no need to 
do that, as the categorisation of the expenses should be at the bill stage, 
and the total per customer comes from the customer report.

HTH,
Maf.