[GNC] [GNC-dev] Automatically split transactions with sales tax

Mon Nov 12 02:45:42 EST 2018

On 12/11/18 12:08 am, Adrien Monteleone wrote:
> Calm down.
>
> The business features are the better route certainly. And if you have 1000 transactions, then the even better route is to use some other software to generate a CSV to import. On that scale, probably a point of sale system that integrates with GnuCash via python and/or a MySQL backend is more sane.
>
> The OP didn’t seem to indicate they were entering 1000s of transactions (but vaguely said “a lot”) and they specifically were looking for a General Ledger (but somehow automatic) solution.
>
> Taking advantage of auto-fill with a few formulas is about the best to hope for under that restriction.
>
> I didn’t mean it as the optimum solution.
>
> Regards,
> Adrien

I'm very passionate about entering data! :-)

The data isn't something the business features cater for, not unless you 
want to do 15 clicks per entry. Stuff like if you buy a folder for the 
office, and some coffee and other random things that you accumulate over 
a month. You might have 30 transactions like this a month, after a few 
years of entering it manually I got sick of it enough to do something 
about it.

Anyway my workflow goes like this. Download a month's transactions or 
so. Run the qif file through the importer where it adds a gst split, and 
deletes transactions I import in other ways (mostly payroll).

Upload using the qif importer, most of the regular transactions are 
matched, the rest go into unspecified where I allocate them.

Takes maybe 5-10 minutes for 150 total transactions or so.

Splitting each transaction to add gst used to take ages, and just as 
long if I used the business features. I have no idea if my situation is 
a minority because it's hard to tell reading the list what volume of 
transactions people do, and what sort of business.

Cheers

Lawrence

>> On Nov 11, 2018, at 5:23 AM, elvis <elvis at dogonfire.com> wrote:
>>
>> Seriously? Are you just telling someone to type stuff stuff in? The WHOLE point of computers is to automate stuff.....
>>
>> What if they have 1000 transactions? At a minute a transaction that a whole day entering stuff that could be in under a SECOND....
>>
>> I know if you have a hammer everything looks like a nail, but really we should be thinking of inventing a better hammer... or eliminating the screw entirely.
>>
>>
>> On 11/11/18 3:23 pm, Adrien Monteleone wrote:
>>> Chris,
>>>
>>> If for some reason you don’t want to use the business features and prefer to enter transactions manually, the auto-fill feature helps greatly for this case.
>>>
>>> I enter all of my cash expenses with a separate sales tax split. (I’m not in a VAT locale, this is ‘in addition to’ sales tax) The principle should be the same for VAT but the math might vary.
>>>
>>> If you’re entering a transaction for the same payee, GnuCash will autofill the splits from the last entry for that payee. So if you’ve entered a split for GST, it will show up there. The difference then for each transaction will be your memo, possibly your income/expense account will need to change, and then the actual math, but the GST split will be added for you saving a few keystrokes.
>>>
>>> In your case, for the item itself, enter the price as a formula and subtract the GST (I’m presuming it is inclusive) as "price / 1+(GST rate)”
>>>
>>> So if your price inclusive of tax is $2.10 your formula is:
>>>
>>> 2.10 / 1.05lyl
>>>
>>> which will give you your ‘pre-tax’ amount or in this example: $2.00
>>>
>>> Then the GST split will automatically “be” the tax. (if you’ve already entered the opposing split)
>>>
>>> If you want to double check it with a formula (helpful for more complicated entries with multiple other splits) then enter this as “price - (price / 1(GST rate)”
>>>
>>> So the above example would be:
>>>
>>> 2.10 - (2.10 / 1.05)
>>>
>>> Which would result in a GST split amount of $0.10.
>>>
>>> Of course, these number look easy but the formulas work no matter how ‘messy’ the rate.
>>>
>>> It isn’t automatic, but it does save time and is very easy to do, especially with practice.
>>>
>>> Note, if you really need to enter the price for the item including GST, but also want a separate split to break it off to a GST Due or some such account, then you’ll need an additional split with a memo something like “GST/Tax Inclusive” and make it the reverse entry of the item. (so a credit to an expense account or a debit to a revenue/income account) and set its value to the amount of the GST split, thus your transaction will still balance.
>>>
>>> For example:
>>>
>>> Cr. Cash		$105
>>> Dr. Expense:Supplies	$105
>>> -memo “paper"
>>> Cr. Expenses:Supplies	$5
>>> -memo “GST Inclusive”
>>> Dr. Expenses:GST	$5
>>> -memo “GST 5%"
>>>
>>> - or -
>>>
>>> Dr. Cash		$105
>>> Cr. Revenue:Sales	$105
>>> -memo “widgets”
>>> Dr. Revenue:Sales	$5
>>> -memo “GST inclusive”
>>> Cr. Liabilities:GST Due	$5
>>> -memo “GST 5%"
>>>
>>> Of course, talk to a local CPA to make sure your reports are reflecting the proper amounts and adjust these entries as needed. These are just rough examples.
>>>
>>> *Tip - because I pay different tax rates due to purchase location, I include the rate in the memo line for future reference should I need it. This too autofills not just from the previous entry, but if I start typing a name for the different jurisdiction, the previous rate and any other info from the most recent same memo gets auto-filled as well.
>>>
>>> Also, while you can enter transaction from the General Journal, entering them from the account that the money is going to/from is less error prone. So if you are paying out of your checking account, enter the transaction from there, one of the splits will HAVE to be a credit to the checking account. The others are going to be debits to balance against it.
>>>
>>> If you are receiving cash funds for example, then enter that in the Assets:Cash register as a debit and the other splits will have to be the offsetting credits. (likely an income/revenue account)
>>>
>>> The advantage here is you won’t accidentally choose the wrong account to send or place the money, the only variable here is why it was spent or why it was received.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Adrien
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Nov 10, 2018, at 3:09 PM, CHRISTOPHER PEARCE <fernwoodtax at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hello all,
>>>>
>>>> I would like Gnucash to automatically create a split transaction for sales
>>>> tax when a taxable product is bought/sold.  I deal with a lot of
>>>> transactions, and its a pain to manually enter the sales tax for each one.
>>>> I'd rather just work within the general ledger and have Gnucash do it
>>>> automatically.
>>>>
>>>> For example, I buy a widget for $100 + 5% GST = $105.  I want Gnucash to
>>>> automatically create the split, and allocate $5.00 to the GST liability
>>>> account.
>>>>
>>>> Of course, the ability to override the default 5% would be necessary.
>>>>
>>>> Is what I'm asking for possible?  I'm not a programmer, so I realize this
>>>> may be a dumb question.
>>>>
>>>> (Frist time on this mailing list, so apologies if I break etiquette)
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Chris
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -- 
>>>> Chris Pearce
>>>> -----------------
>>>> President
>>>> Fernwood Tax Solutions
>>>> Victoria, BC   Regina,SK
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> gnucash-devel mailing list
>>>> gnucash-devel at gnucash.org
>>>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
>>>>
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>> Error 3032 - Recursion error. See error 3032.
>>
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