Handling Debit Opening Balances for Customers

[Nelson Handcock]

Hi Folks,

Using GN 2.6.3...I haven't upgraded fr a while but then again I'm not sure
the current version is quite stable based on the number of threads talking
about various upgrade issues....


I'm in the process of transferring customer balances from previous year to
next financial year.

I've decided to start a new gnucash file because the current one is too big
- it takes several minutes to open or run a report due to the number of
transactions.

My new file has been built by exporting and importing the account tree, and
by loading up the customers using the import utility.

I've created an "Opening Balances" asset account, so that I can enter the
closing balances from the old file - no problems. Some values are where the
customer has a credit balance and some are where the customer owes money (a
Debit amount).

To get these balances to show up on the customer report I have to use the
"assign as Payment" function. I have learned that I have to have an invoice
to select to do this - some customers don't have an invoice in the new
financial year so I create one to use and then unpost it later on.

What I've noticed is that where the customer has a Debit opening balance,
if I try to use the "Assign as Payment" then the pop-up screen assumes that
I'm trying to assign a payment to a Vendor, and I therefore can't use the
function at all because I'm trying to assign a debit to a customer.

The only way around it is to use the "Pay Invoice" function and enter the
amount as a refund, and post it to the Opening Balances account. Nothing
really wrong with that, except that it take a number of extra steps to run
the customer report, open the invoice, choose the "Pay Invoice"
option...compared to assigning as payment where the pay invoice pop-up
comes straight up and I can enter the customer name, choose the account and
bam - done.


I'm wondering if this is something that could be fixed - so that when the
"assign as payment" feature is used, you can select either a vendor or a
customer.

I'm happy to submit a formal development request if people think it's
something that should/could be looked at by the developers?



Thanks & Regards,

Nelson Handcock

<http://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonhandcockaustralia>