[GNC] Outstanding Check Problem

[Matthew Lybanon]

This is more of an accounting question than a GnuCash question; what I would like to know is how to handle this within GnuCash. I’m sure that this situation isn’t unique, and there is probably a standard way of handling it in accounting.

I am maintaining the checkbook for a club account. Several months ago I wrote a check to a member. He deposited the check, and the institution where he deposited  the check collected the money. But because of some mistake within the banking system (not my mistake, not his mistake), the money came from somewhere other than the account from which the check was issued–the one I am using GnuCash to keep records for. (If it was charged to another account at the issuing bank, the account holder hasn’t noticed the discrepancy.)

That means that my records differ from the bank’s records by the amount of the check; everything else has cleared. Unless by some miracle the banking system straightens this out, my records will differ from the bank’s records forever. Is there a clean way to handle this, other than simply deleting that check from my (GnuCash) records and pretending it never existed?