Statement and transaction date

[Maf. King]

On Tuesday, 27 December 2016 10:58:11 GMT Abhijit Kshirsagar wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I recently began using a new debit card where where the transaction
> date in the statement is almost always different from the actual
> transaction date. I take receipts for (almost) all transactions made
> on this card, and one or two times a week I enter all the receipts
> into gnucash. However, on the card statement/ transaction summary, the
> transaction dates are 1. at a different date 2. the merchant name is
> often abbreviated or is the obscure business name of the store and 3.
> The transactions are out of order.
> 
> I have considered the following options:
> 
> A. Record transactions in gnucash as per actual date and merchant name
> etc. This way my expenses-vs-day-of-week and such reports are always
> accurate, but reconciling with bank statements is a major PITA since I
> cannot import transactions
> B. Record transactions in gnucash as per bank records. (I don't even
> need to do this manually since the bank gives me a nice CSV which I
> can directly import into gnucash). I only need to add the correct
> expense account for each transaction. But because the dates are wrong,
> reports like expense over week are unusable.
> 
> Is there any other option?  How do you deal with the date discrepancy?

Hi Abhijit,

I record transactions using the date I make them.  (Usually the date shown on 
the receipt given to me by the merchant).

I take the view that I know more about my finances than any Bank or Credit card 
company does.  IMHO the point of using GC and reconciling each month is to be 
meaningful to me, not the bank.

they will catch up eventually!

0.02
Maf.