[GNC] Account for contracted grain sales?

[Adrien Monteleone]

> On Nov 5, 2019 w45d309, at 8:01 AM, Nate Bargmann <n0nb at n0nb.us> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> I was merely curious if there was a way to record this in GnuCash so
> that it doesn't show as income *yet*, nothing more.  I'm happy to let it
> ride until January when the funds turn up in my bank account.

Yes, and even using the business features.

You can create and post an invoice when you want, and still not have it hit ‘income’ until you get paid.

In order to do so, you’ll need an intermediary account. John noted one way to do this.

Another way is to create a holding income account. Assign your line-items on the invoice when you deliver grain to this holding account. You can call it something like Income:Grain Contracted. (as John noted, this could instead be an asset account, and your accountant might be more comfortable with that setup - ask which one you should use.)

Then when you get paid, apply the payment to the invoice as normal, but then also make a manual transaction between Income:Grain Contracted and your regular Income account. (for the amount of the actual payment)

When you run your P&L/Income Statement for tax purposes, only include the regular Income account. Do not include the Grain Contracted account.

This workflow will provide you with a report for tax purposes showing only actual cash received and still allow you to track grain you’ve physically delivered but haven’t yet been paid for. (as well as which deliveries are being paid for when) Coming in a future version of GnuCash will be a revised report that will allow you to see which payments apply to which invoices. (that info is already discoverable, but not easily)

If you use the built-in GnuCash Tax Report feature, simply don’t assign the Grain Contracted account as a tax-related account and it won’t show up on that report.

Regards,
Adrien