Refunds and rebates causing imbalances - where original payment(s) is/are difficult to record

[mjl2009]

Hi

I am a new user.

I have several problems understanding and allocating rebates and refunds in
GnuCash.

Background

I began tracking my finances in GnuCash this year. I captured my financial
data starting from 1 July 2011. 

Case 1

For three years ending in May 2012, I paid monthly amounts for insurance on
a car that I had actually sold. After I discovered what this regular debit
from my bank account was, my insurer agreed to refund the total amount of
these installments.

I received a large lump sum from the insurer. It is a refund, but I don't
know how to record it against one of my many, small premium payments (say,
the last ever one in May 2012) without creating an imbalance.

Case 2

I received a rebate from Medicare for aggregated medical expenses. Some of
these were incurred before 30 June 2011. This rebate amount is listed as an
imbalance, probably because it is understood by GnuCash at the moment as
income, or as a rebate from nowhere. I don't know how to record this amount
as a transaction without creating an imbalance.

Case 3

I followed GnuCash tutorial steps to record a refund for a purchase made on
credit card. In my case there were two differences to the example given: I
purchased two items from one retailer as a single direct debit from a bank
account linked to a debit Visa card. (No problem for me to record.) And, my
purchase was a partial refund of just one unavailable item. GnuCash seemed
to want to record the 'missing' half of the refunded purchase amount as an
imbalance. My kludge fix has been to just delete the 'Imbalance'
transaction. Is this correct procedure?

I'm trying to eliminate the imbalances from these scenarios and understand
this aspect of GnuCash better.

I appreciate any advice from more experienced users.

MJL



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