[GNC] Expense accrual

[Adrien Monteleone]

Caveat, this is *not* accounting advice - if you have any questions, 
seek the assistance of a local CPA. This is just how I do these 
transactions based on an Accounting 101 textbook:

I think your #2 is similar to my method.

I too pay insurance in late December for the following 6 months. (and 
again in June) I do use an invoice, but you don't have to.

The initial transaction is a payment balanced against a pre-paid asset 
account.

Then I set up a Scheduled Transaction (SX) to fire on the same day of 
the month (26th in my case) which is a credit against that pre-paid 
asset (thus decreasing it) and a debit to an Insurance expense account. 
(Auto in my case) After the 6 months, I have 'used' the pre-paid asset 
and spread the expense out properly.

The only wiggle I've found with this approach, is unlike other normal 
invoices, I can't post this one till I pay it, because until it is paid, 
it technically isn't a pre-paid expense, but this non-posted state, 
means I don't get the benefit of a Bills Due Reminder. I suppose I could 
employ an additional holding account, but I don't find the effort worth 
the payoff for this one invoice that is due twice per year. If you are 
doing manual transactions, none of that is a concern anyway.

Note, 'accruals' aren't *missing* in GnuCash, you just have to do them 
manually. (or dealing with issues like pre-paid expenses, depreciation, 
etc.) I suppose the Business Features could be 'smarter' in this regard, 
allowing you to setup the SX at the same time, but the extra clicks 
really aren't that much trouble and some things like insurance are a 
set-and-almost-forget sort of effort. (since the premium floats a bit, I 
have to make minor adjustments to the SX template every 6 months) What I 
like about GnuCash is it doesn't hide the details from you like some 
other apps. In fact, it requires you to get a grasp of basic accounting, 
which turns out not to be as mysterious as some might think.

Regards,
Adrien

On 1/3/21 9:37 AM, Gabriele Agliardi wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am considering to start using gnucash for personal accounting, after too
> much time spent on Excel!
> 
> I like the application a lot, and I really appreciate your efforts.
> 
> There is a key feature missing in my opinion: the ability to set the an
> accounting date different from the payment date, for regular transactions
> (no invoices or complicate stuff, since I'm using it for personal use): for
> instance, if I pay the insurance on Dec 28, I would like it to appear in
> the reports and to be compared with budget for the next year; in short, I
> would like to manually provide a date for the accounting of an expense,
> thus overriding the transaction date. Even better, I may how the expense
> splits among (potentially multiple) accounting periods: for instance, the
> insurance may be spread flat over the year.
> 
> I have found the following workarounds:
> 1. set the accounting date as the transaction date, and move the real
> transaction date to the description, or
> 2. make a set of transactions, like the following: on the payment date, I
> move money to a holding account, and then I register the expense from the
> holding account on the accounting date; in this scenario, though, I would
> like to keep track of the relation between these movements, but I can only
> use the description.