Statement and transaction date

[Abhijit Kshirsagar]

Thanks for your opinions.
So I am using the transaction dates for all expenses as much as
possible. The only exception is for small purchases where I don't take
a receipt (or lose it) - I have to rely on the statement. Finally, one
more caveat: since transactions are not processed by the bank in
chronological order, the statement balance deviates from the account
balance in gnucash.

This also needs to be kept in mind because the account balance
(according to the bank) is not the account balance as reported by
gnucash.

~Abhijit

On 28 December 2016 at 13:56, Mike or Penny Novack <mpnovack at mtdata.com> wrote:
> On 12/28/2016 9:48 AM, Jean-David Beyer wrote:
>>
>> On 12/28/2016 08:21 AM, Mike or Penny Novack wrote:
>>
>>> Your books should reflect when YOU paid, not when it was
>>> collected/processed against your account.
>>>
>> I am not sure about this.
>>
>> I am treasurer for a tax-exempt organization. When someone makes a
>> donation by check, normally _I use the date written on the check_ as the
>> date of the gift.
>
> So  am I. The technically correct date is the one where you were handed the
> check, or if mailed, the postmark date. The date on the check? Still
> "tentative" < the person can change their minds about giving it over to
> anybody >
>
> Anyway, the "received" date (if mailed, when mailed, not when mail arrived)
> is what I would use entering the transaction into "undeposited cash" << and
> not when I get to the bank to deposit it >>
>
> Michael D Novack
>
>  PS: And no, you don't pay taxes. But you may still be reporting. Amounts as
> of certain dates matter, since 990/990-EZs have to not only be in balance
> with themselves but must match previous years.
>
>>
>> But when the date on the check is late December, I look at the postmark
>> on the envelope. If they mailed it in December, I still use the date on
>> the check. Maybe even if postmark is January 2.
>>
>> But when the postmark is January 15, I count the date of the gift as the
>> year of the postmark.
>>
>> What my records say do not affect my organization, since we are so tax
>> exempt that we do not file income tax returns. But I do send each
>> contributor a "thank you" letter that they can use if they itemize their
>> income tax returns. So I will be sending out the 2016 letters pretty soon.
>>
>> When I am on the other side of a transaction, I keep the thank-you notes
>> from the charitable organizations in case of audits, since I do itemize
>> my deductions. I have never been audited. I wondered about that one year
>> when I inherited a lot of money and donated _a lot_ of it to charity:
>> more than half my adjusted gross income. So I carried over some of the
>> contributions for a few years. But the IRS saw nothing funny about that:
>> no audit, no letter requesting explanation.
>>
>
> --
> There is no possibility of social justice on a dead planet except the
> equality of the grave.
>
>
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