[GNC] Reconcile transactions dated before start of accounts

[Dr. David Kirkby]

The bank account balance in the account submitted to Companies House does
not include the two PayPal purchases (£6.75 and £13, total £19.75) which
were committed to, but not shown in the bank account. The accounts
submitted to Companies House shows *exactly* what was actually in the bank
account.

The accounts show a liability of £450.00 “accurals”, so I assume that the
£19.75 would be part of that. I think that £450 is only an approximate
figure, and is similar to the fee he will charge. (He actually charged me
£480). £480 + £19.75 is obviously not £450.

There’s no particularly good reason for starting the accounts in GnuCash on
1/3/2022 - in an ideal world I would start them to include the very first
transaction the company made, but I don’t want to do that, as it would be
too much work.

Given that I have only entered one transaction, and are trying to find my
way around GnuCash, I am tempted to retrieve a backup before any
transactions were entered, then start entering transactions from 25/2/2022,
using the closing balance on that day. There’s nothing on 25/2/2022 which
has been committed to, but not shown up. It might make my life a bit
easier. It means adding a few transactions I hadn’t intended to, but the
accounts will all be correct, with no complications.

Dave

On Thu, 8 Dec 2022 at 00:05, David Cousens <davidcousens49 at gmail.com> wrote:

> David,
>
> The problem is the opening balance you have used, presumably from your
> previous
> set of books closing balance, includes the two transactions at a date
> before the
> reconciliation on 1/3/2022 but the balance in the bank statement does not.
> These
> transactions would have been unreconciled in your previous books to
> 1/3/2022
> although they will appear in the closing balance.
>
> You can simply add the transactions in your current set of books and note
> that
> they are carried forward from the previous books and adjust the Opening
> Balance
> to the reconciled balance to 1/3/2022 of your previous set of books
> (presuming
> you used the closing balance at 1/3/2022 when you opened the current set of
> books and not the reconciled balance in them at 1/3/2022 as your opening
> balance) to reflect the reconciled balance in the account at 1/3/2022.
>
>  Notate accordingly in the opening balance transaction so it is clear at
> some
> time in the future should you or your accountant have to make sense of it.
>
> Banks record an event at a time that is relevant to their accounts, most
> likely
> when the funds are cleared not necessarily at the time, e.g. when you have
> committed to a purchase or sale, that the  event, which gives rise to the
> event
> in the bank's account, is relevant to your accounts.
>
> David Cousens
>
> On Wed, 2022-12-07 at 22:33 +0000, Dr. David Kirkby wrote:
> > My company has been running 8 years or so. The financial year starts 1st
> > March each year (1/3/2022 in DD/MM/YYYY format)
> >
> > I wish to enter into GnuCash all the transactions for the current
> financial
> > year onwards, so starting 1/3/2022 - I have no desire to enter all
> > transactions from when the company first started trading.
> >
> > The first transaction this year occurred on 1/3/2022  and showed up
> > *immediately* in the bank statement. I reconciled the bank account on
> > 1/3/2022,
> > which with hindsight might not have been sensible.
> >
> > However, the next couple of entries shown in the bank account occurred a
> > day earlier on 28/2/2022, but didn’t show up in the bank account until
> > 1/3/2022. This will make it impossible to get the amount of money in the
> > bank account agree with the transactions in GbuCash, because two
> > transactions from the previous financial year are not in the GnuCash
> > records.
> >
> > Is there any way around this problem? Should I just enter the two
> > transactions from the previous financial year into GnuCash?
> >
> > I know that my accountant will not be bothered either way.
> >
> > Dave
> >
>
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-- 
Dr. David Kirkby,
Kirkby Microwave Ltd,
drkirkby at kirkbymicrowave.co.uk
https://www.kirkbymicrowave.co.uk/
Telephone 01621-680100./ +44 1621 680100

Registered in England & Wales, company number 08914892.
Registered office:
Stokes Hall Lodge, Burnham Rd, Althorne, Chelmsford, Essex, CM3 6DT, United
Kingdom