[GNC] How to balance correctly a particular transaction which involves debt?

[Michael or Penny Novack]

On 9/21/2020 9:37 AM, Daniel Fishman wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Suppose that you go with your friend to a shop, and then a friend
> remembers that he forgotten his credit card and asks you to pay
> for his merchandise. He intends to return the money later. You pay
> in the shop (for example, buy a book) using your credit card. Then
> a few days later the friend returns his debt - for example, by paying
> you cash.
>
> I want to document those facts in gnucash.
>
> Since the payment to the shop was made by the credit card, an account
> 'Expenses:<shop name>' is debited, while an account 'Liability:<credit 
> card name>'
> is credited. I also want to make it explicit that a friend incurred
> debt due to this transaction.

Stop --- why did you debit Expenses:<shop name >> ? I assume you 
normally do that (expense incurred where) rather than expense:category 
of expense, but that's just a matter of what you want to track.

But THIS transaction wasn't about an expense of yours. It was about an 
expense of your friend that he/she paid for by incurring a debt to you. 
So for YOUR books, debit assets:owed by friend X; credit 
liability:credit card. More likely the situation was that you ALSO 
bought something, in which case the debit side of the transaction would 
be a split.

Michael D Novack