Paying myself...

[Geert Janssens]

On Friday 15 April 2016 23:32:24 Jonathan Garber wrote:
> How do I pay myself for a business expense I paid from my personal
> accounts (I only use GNUcash for business).
> 
There are two parts to this (business) transaction:

1. The expense itself (whether it was a service or a good you bought doesn't matter)

2. The way you paid for this expense

Your business books should record both of these. In the common case, your business pays for 
the expense so you can model this in one single transaction:

Assets Checking     $100
Expense                    $100

In case your business doesn't pay the expense, you still need to record the expense itself first. 
As there's no payment yet (from the perspective of your business) you still owe someone the 
money for that expense, so you record it as a liability:

Liability           $100
Expense                    $100

At some point your business will pay you for the expense, resolving the liability:

Assets Checking     $100
Liability                  $100

Feel free to decorate these transactions with sensible descriptions and notes :)

Regards,

Geert