Unsure how to keep track of missing payments

[Geert Janssens]

On Monday 13 January 2014 10:12:39 Mark Phillips wrote:
> My Mom is at home with hospice and I am managing her financial affairs
> using gnucash. She has 24/7 caregivers, who I pay weekly with a check
> and record the amounts as an expense. The company which provides the
> caregivers sends a weekly report to my Mom's long term insurance
> company, and I occasionally receive a check from the insurance
> company. Up to now, I have been recording the check as income.
> 
> I also keep a spreadsheet on the side, where I keep track of the weeks
> each check is paying for. There have been a few instances in the past
> year where the insurance company did not pay for a day or week here
> and there, and the spreadsheet clearly shows when these events occur.
> In the spreadsheet, each row corresponds to a week of care, so when a
> check arrives, I tick off that week as being paid. I also note how
> many weeks we have "billed", so I know how far in arrears the
> insurance company payments are running. I call the insurance company
> to remind them they missed a couple of payments here and there...;)
> and eventually I get a check.
> 
> I was wondering if there is a way to dump my spreadsheet and do
> everything in gnucash. It would need to clearly show me that the
> insurance company missed one or more payments or made a partial
> payment, as well as what dates correspond to the missing payments.
> 
> Thanks for your suggestions, and for wading through this missive!
> 
> Mark
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Hi Mark,

I can't remember seeing a reply to this so here goes...

I'm doing something similar with prepayments I make to some suppliers.

When you pay your weekly check to a caregiver make a transfer from your 
checking account to an intermediary account, say "Insurance Balance".
For example, if you pay $100
Checking decreases with $100
Insurance Balance increases with $100

Let's assume you have done this for 3 weeks now so you have 3 such 
transactions.

When the insurance pays you for two weeks record that as a transfer from 
the "Insurance Balance" to your checking account.
Checking increases with $200
Insurance Balance decreases with $200

Now we should still figure out a way to know which weeks were repaid.
Suppose your insurance reimbursed the first and the last week, but 
skipped the middle one.

In my scenario I reuse the reconcile column of the Insurance Balance 
register. When the insurance's reimbursement is entered, go into the 
Insurance balance and tick the "n" in each of these transactions:
- your check for week one
- your check for week three
- the payment made by the insurance
Each of these splits will now have a 'c' (from 'cleared').

The lines that still have an 'n' in the reconcile column are still due.

That's a first suggestion. Perhaps others can refine this.

Geert