Scout Troop Account Structure & Invoice Procedure for Dues

[jdunham]

A liability is not an asset, so why would entries in liabilities or income
affect your assets?  I agree your Net Worth would be ($24), but not your net
assets.

I still think your fundamentals are flawed too. I can't see why you would
name an income account "Individual Contributions" nor why you would make a
transaction between that an a Scout Account.  If a scout gives money to the
troop and that same amount is held in trust for the scout, then the troop
assets rise (you put the check in the bank) and the liabilities rise (you
now have money on hand that you owe back to your scout).  Nowhere in that
transaction does the troop have income.  That's why it doesn't make any
sense to have an income account called "Individual Contributions".

Now if you go and assess dues, either through an invoice or as I do it, with
a simple transaction, then you do create income for the troop, so you would
want an account called "Income:Dues".  The charge is what creates the
income, not the payment of it.  The charge is a transaction between the
family account  and some income category like dues, fundraising, November
campout, etc.

The payment is just mostly separate transaction between an asset like
Undeposited Funds and the A/R or liability account that shows the scout's
balance due.  The business features let you associate those pair of
transactions, but as I mentioned before, tracking that association doesn't
give you a lot of benefit if you are keeping running accounts for your scout
families.

Jason


Joshua Sanders wrote
> I guess what I'm confused about is liability accounts in GNUcash. Even if
> I did a simple transaction with $0 in my assets column
> 
> Dr. Liabilities:Scout Account - Nick $24
>    Cr.   Income:4010 Individual Contributions - $24 
> 
> 
> Shouldn't that show me Net Assets at the bottom of the screen as $(24.00)?
> Am I reading that wrong or is my rudimentary bookkeeping understanding
> completely flawed? 
> Joshua





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