[GNC] AR problems

Adrien Monteleone adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net
Wed Jan 15 11:48:01 EST 2020


> On Jan 15, 2020 w3d15, at 9:42 AM, Bruce Irving via gnucash-user <gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:
> 
> Thank you Adrien for your detailed reply.  And my BP has dropped - I should have waited another day before I made my "rant".  My apologies.
> 
>> Win10, GC 3.8, SQLLiteI am very disappointed - to the extent that I'm angry!  I have tried all the reports in Business and Experimental and I could find none that give me a summary of my customers WITH a balance!  Neither Customer Overview nor Customer Summary include the Balance and the Customer Report won't show which invoices are paid!
> 
> The Receivables Aging Report shows all customers with a balance, as well as the aging breakdowns of those balances. By default, only customers with a balance are shown, but you can opt to show all customers if you like. Note, there are problems with the standard version of this report. The beta version in the experimental menu is better and will eventually be the standard. This is probably the report you are looking for.
> 
> The Customer Overview *does* show a balance, though maybe not by default. There is a down arrow with a drop-down menu to the far right of the header. From there you can select visible columns, where you will find ?balance? as an option.
> 
> The Customer Summary is not designed to show balances owed, but rather profitability. However, it appears it doesn?t presently work properly. (and some columns I can?t seem to figure out how to influence, that is, how does the report calculate markup or expenses if those associated figures have no place to be entered in the app?)
> 
> Seeing which invoices are paid is a little different, and arguably the UI could be better here.
> 
> First, the new beta Customer Report has the option to show you the linked ?documents?, that is, which payments apply to which invoices and do so in a simple or detailed fashion. Think of this report as a ?statement of account? where you can show more or less detail as desired.
> 
> Second, the traditional and current official method for seeing which invoices are paid/unpaid is to run a Find for all invoices (or by customer). There you will see a Paid? checkbox column. You can?t mark them paid here, but you can see if they are paid or not. You can also filter your search by if they are paid or not, thus only giving you unpaid invoices, if you prefer. Sadly, this result is not exportable nor can you copy/paste it somewhere else for processing or tracking outside of GnuCash. (I?m pretty sure there is a bug filed on this)
> 
> Third, the Business > Customer > Invoices Due Reminder dialog will list all invoices that have not been paid in full, along with their remaining balances. I normally run GnuCash less than full width on a 1080p monitor and I have enough room on the side for this reminder list to always be visible. (as well as the AP equivalent, and my scheduled transaction up-next list)
> 
> There are lots of ways to see the info you want, right out of the box. There are others that might involve some creative searches and reporting based on the AP or other Registers as well, but the above methods are much easier to work with.
> 
> Wow!  When I get back to the office tomorrow, I'll dive into those reports again.  I guess my frustration was that there wasn't an edit report from the toolbar.  What I want to do is print statements for customers with a balance due.  As it stands, I have to look at each of 100+ customers one by one to see if they have a balance, then print their statement.

It’s the Receivables Aging Report you want then.

When you get it configured with the options you like so it displays nicely, you’ll notice the total column amounts are all hyperlinks.

Click the total of the customer for whom you want to print a statement and —voila! a Customer Report (aka Statement of Account) for that customer showing invoice and payment history along with aging and balance due. Note, this report (as all) have options for customization and you can pretty it up if you delve into report stylesheets.

I leave my aging reports (AR & AP) open 24/7 in their own tabs along with GnuCash. I just reload them for a refresh as needed. It is a much saner workflow than having to run a blank Customer Report (statement) and then choose a customer in options. (when you get really adventurous, you can make a ‘dashboard’ using the multi-column report with your AR aging in one slot and the AP aging in another!)

Now, as noted, the Aging reports have some problems. And they aren’t going to be fixed. Instead, new beta reports have been created from scratch. (In the experimental menu) Unfortunately, those versions hyper-link to the current standard Customer Report. That’s still usable, but the new corresponding beta version of that report allows for showing linked payments applied to each invoice. So if you want to use that newer version, there’s sadly no way around running them independently and selecting the customer, for now. That will change when 4.0 comes out this summer as the beta reports will replace the current versions.


> 
> 
>> Also, I attempted to enter a Credit Memo and it would NOT allow me to designate Cash on Hand.  The message said something to the effect that the account must be in the same currency.  ALL of my accounts are USD!I finally exported the AR Register and massaged it in a spreadsheet - a rather cumbersome effort to get it massaged.
> 
> I?m not exactly sure what went wrong here. I?d have to do a test. But make sure the customer you are issuing the credit note for is set for USD. (should be by default) I believe the warning is about the customer?s assigned currency has to match the account.
> 
> I also have been using GNC since 2.6.?  I have over 100 potential customers - all members of my Post (club).  I imported the members last year from my member spreadsheet. I will order items for them and most pay me sometime after they receive them - even a year later.  This one, however, paid by cash and the item is still in-transit - and that is a rare occurrence.  It's my understanding that this credit will be applied to the invoice which will be made in the future.  Payments either go into Cash on Hand or Checks on Hand. (They haven't been deposited yet.)

The better option here (as you surmised below) would have been to take a pre-payment. You might have to manually assign it to the invoice when you need to, but that is much easier to work with than credit notes. Those should really be reserved for refund type situations.

You can’t delete the credit note you’ve already created, (if you went through with the process) so just change it’s ‘invoice #’ to “use next”. Next time you really need to issue a credit note, you can just edit that one as needed. It might also be a good idea to create a dummy customer and assign the “use next” credit note to it. That way it doesn’t ever show up and confuse you when looking at the real customer again months (or years) from now. The same can be done with any invoices created in error. (neither can be deleted, just re-purposed) Of course, you’ll need to un-post the credit note if you managed to do so.


> 
> Though I would ask, why do you want to issue a credit note linked to ?cash on hand??
> Usually a credit note line item will be posted against an income/revenue account which will act as a reversing transaction. (a debit to income, rather than the normal credit) The credit note itself will post a credit to AR, which would reduce the customer?s AR balance.
> Maybe a walk-through of the particular reason for issuing this note might help someone here offer clearer advice and steps to accomplish what you want.
> 
> It is my understanding, and procedure, that the invoice credits an income/revenue account while debiting the AR account.  The payment... Oh! I see what you mean.  I should have Posted a Payment rather than a Credit Memo.
> 
> Bruce Preach the Gospel wherever you go.  If necessary, use words.

Regards,
Adrien


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