Scheduled Transaction - unusual case

[Michael Hendry]

> On 20 Nov 2015, at 09:03, Maf. King <maf at chilwell.net> wrote:
> 
> On Thu 19 November 15 22:40:09 listreader wrote:
>> Howdy...
>> 
>> I own a security that pays a monthly dividend on the next-to-last
>> Thursday of every month.  No, I don't know why they chose that schedule
>> but that is what it is.  Besides scheduling each month individually in
>> GnuCash, is there any way to better automate it?
>> 
>> GnuCash is 2.6.4 running under linux (openSUSE 13.2).
>> 
>> Thanks.
>> 
>> Ralph
> 
> Hi Ralph,
> 
> I don't think GC will let you create this sort of schedule, how about you set 
> it to happen on say 20th of the month and either manually tweak the date after 
> it has been created, or just live with a +/- 3 day discrepancy between your 
> records and those of the security?
> 
> HTH,
> Maf.

Agreed.

It depends very much on why you might need to be precise about the date on which this sum is actually paid in.

>From the point of view of book-keeping, it doesn’t really matter which particular date in the month the payment is recorded as being received. (An accountant might quibble with that statement…).

A converse situation arises when you write a cheque - I enter cheques through GnuCash using the date on which I signed them, not the unpredictable date on which the recipient may receive them, or present them to the bank, or for the bank to clear the funds.

If I ensure that expenditure is recorded with the earliest possible date and income with the latest, I am least likely to get a nasty surprise when my bank account is inadvertently overdrawn.

If I were in your position, I would set up a scheduled transaction for the income to take place on the fourth Thursday of each month. That way it won’t ever appear in GC before it appears in your bank.

Michael