Scout Troop Dues Structure

[Adrien Monteleone]

Your net assets should be $24.

Your Invoice posting should have generated this:

Dr.	Asset:A/R			$24
   Cr.	   Income - Scout Account	   $24

'Paying' the invoice should have generated this:

Dr.	Asset:Checking Account		$25
   Cr.	   Asset:A/R			   $25

This leaves you with the following account balances (sans other transactions)

Assets:
	Checking	$25
	A/R		-$1
Net assets:		$24

Income			$24

If you leave this like it is, the $1 overpayment remains unlinked sitting as a credit in the A/R account until you apply it to a future invoice or reverse it with another transaction.

Alternatively, you could create a liability account called "overpaid dues" and use this to assign the overpayment to when making the payment transaction on a dues invoice. This will also show you how much you owe at a glance for this reason since while you physically hold the cash asset, you really owe it back to the scout.

Doing it that way would generate this:

Dr.	Asset:Checking Account		$25
   Cr.	   Asset:A/R			   $24
   Cr.	   Liability:Overpaid Dues	   $ 1

However, I'd probably opt for creating 'customer accounts' for each scout/family and letting the overpayment ride there. That way you can easily apply it to future invoices or at least see the net balance they may owe (or that you owe them) The liability route would require more work to track who it is owed to.

Either way, your net assets are $24 here. Re-read your problem statement: "I have $24 in my checking account and $1 that I'm holding for the scout that can't be spent"

If you have $24 AND you have $1 then you have $25 total. But one of those dollars, as you note is not yours and thus cannot be your asset. The $1 does not subtract from the $24 you are SUPPOSED to have, it subtracts from the $25 you are actually holding, leaving you with $24, not $23.

Happy Trails,
Adrien
Eagle Scout - Troop405







On Apr 2, 2016, at 11:00 AM, gnucash-user-request at gnucash.org wrote:

> From: Joshua Sanders <joshuamichaelsanders at gmail.com>
> Date: April 2, 2016 2:42:31 AM CDT
> To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Subject: Scout Troop Dues Structure
> 
> 
> My son's scout troop is trying to adopt GNUcash to keep track of their books.
> I'm having trouble figuring out how to get some of the basic chart of
> accounts setup to track dues. I have the following for my accounts. These
> accounts are basically self explanatory but the 2100 account is setup as a
> liability account. We hold $$$ in trust for boys and then use those funds as
> membership assessments are....assessed, camp fees are demanded, etc.
> 
> 1010 - Checking Account
> 1100 - Accounts Receivable
> 2100 - Scout Account - Nick
> 4010 - Individual contributions
> 
> I was running through paying dues for this kid and came up with the
> following steps.
> 1. Kid's parents turn in check for $25 to put $$$ in scout account.
> <http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/file/n4684073/Snap_2016-04-02_at_01.png> 
> 2. Treasurer creates an invoice and posts it for Membership Assessment.
> Assessment is $24 (parent overpaid by $1). Income account is Scout Account
> and Posted Account is A/R
> <http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/file/n4684073/Snap_2016-04-02_at_01.png> 
> 3. Treasurer then proceeds to immediately pay for invoice by processing
> payment. Payment is $24. Transfer account is Checking Account and Post to
> Account is A/R. 
> 
> Did I do that right? Net Assets are showing $25. 
> <http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/file/n4684073/Snap_2016-04-02_at_01.png> 
> 
> 
> Shouldn't it be $23 because I have $24 in my checking account and $1 that
> I'm holding for the scout that can't be spent?
> Joshua