[GNC] Convert credit cards as expenses to credit cards as liabilities?

[Adrien Monteleone]

To be clear, what I meant by ‘download from your card company’ is you might be able to directly import that into GnuCash so you don’t have to type it. The same goes for future transactions. That would get you both proper expense and liability tracking.

Most card companies should offer CSV as a download format, but not all. GnuCash has several formats it can import. Check to see what your issuing bank offers and then check in the Help Manual & Guide to see what GnuCash can import.

People here on the list can assist with the import and some may even use the same card/bank and be familiar with the kinks of their format.

Regards,
Adrien

> On Sep 13, 2019 w37d256, at 11:23 AM, Adrien Monteleone <adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net> wrote:
> 
> If you’re going to keep using the simplified method, there’s no point to changing the account type.
> 
> #1 you’d lose expense tracking entirely for anything spent via the card.
> #2 credit card liability would forever be ’negative’ (meaning they owe you)
> 
> The simplified method works as you have been doing it.
> 
> The more real-world method is as follows:
> 
> -----
> When making a purchase on credit:
> 
> Dr. Expenses:(whatever)
> Cr. Liabilities:Credit Card
> 
> When making a payment on the card:
> 
> Dr. Liabilities:Credit Card
> Cr. Checking
> 
> Now you can track what you spent the money on, as well as how much you owe on the card.
> 
> ------
> 
> With the current method, all you are doing is recording the card payment from checking and no specific expense tracking at all. (even though it is listed as an expense account, you keep increasing it forever as a generic) But an Income Statement will make sense, as will your Balance Sheet
> 
> With the switch you are considering, you’d just be doing the second of the above two transactions instead of:
> 
> Dr. Expenses:Credit Card
> Cr. Checking
> 
> Which would remove expenses entirely and make your liabilities look like assets since they are negative. (because you keep paying more down, without the charge part of the transaction) So both your Income Statement and Balance Sheet would be wrong.
> 
> It wouldn’t be hard to switch the historical data, especially since it is just 240 transactions. (which you’ve already noted you don’t mind altering)
> 
> That would *maybe* involve changing the account type. You shouldn’t need to alter those 240 transactions, because those splits assigned to the card are still going to be debits. (they were payments, now on a liability which is correct)
> 
> If you can’t just change the type, then create the new liability account and then delete the old expense account. When GnuCash asks, choose the liability version to assign the transactions to. In a very worst case, you’d have to do that manually 240 times, but I think it is going to be more automatic than that.
> 
> What you would need to do for the card account balance to make sense (and not understate your liabilities) is to also enter 240 expense transactions between the card and ’something’. (you might also do this as annual transactions, or even a single transaction as the sum of everything up to this point)
> 
> If you don’t know or don’t care what those historical transactions were for, you could either leave the expenses:card in place and assign them there, or create a ‘miscellaneous’ account or something similar and then proceed in the future with recording actual expenses paid with the card.
> 
> You might also be able to download some of that actual history from your card company if you think you want it. (I doubt all 10 years though)
> 
> Regards,
> Adrien
> 
> 
>> On Sep 13, 2019 w37d256, at 10:51 AM, <ornd25 at tutanota.com> <ornd25 at tutanota.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Can I convert credit cards as expenses to credit cards as liabilities reasonably easily, or is my best choice to start doing it properly now and leave the old transactions alone?
>> 
>> I have just started with GnuCash and have imported and hand-massaged 10 years worth of records from two other financial managers. In them I was tracking only Income and Expenses and therefore treated credit cards as expenses in a simplified manner, that is, one credit card entry per month per credit card in Expenses:Credit Card and one entry per month paying that bill from Bank:Checking. Each Bank:checking was reconciled, and Expenses:credit card was not reconciled. 
>> 
>> There are two credit cards so Expenses:credit card has approximately 240 entries for 10 years.
>> 
>> I intend to continue with the simplified approach per the documentation, so I won't be entering individual credit card charges, just the monthly amount.
>> 
>> MY first thought was to change Expenses:Credit Card to Liabilities:Credit Card, but then I'd be left without an Expense:Credit Card.
>> 
>> I actually don't mind manipulating 240 transactions, but entering 240 of them invites errors.
>> 
>> Do I have a way to do this? If so, please explain simply, remembering my newbie status.
>> 
>> Thanks.
>