[GNC] Reconciling credit card

[Adrien Monteleone]

I'll second Michael's take on the labels.

This thread is a good example of why they aren't so 'friendly'. Sure 
I'll bet lots of folks use them with no issues, but when something out 
of the ordinary happens, 'Debit/Credit' (Dr. & Cr. for short) is much 
more sane and helpful.

At least while you are sorting this out, maybe switch the preference. 
Also, turn on View > Transaction Journal for the affected accounts. (so 
you can easily see all splits at once) You can always switch back later 
once you've got it sorted if you prefer the default labels and view. If 
you keep the labels as the default, just remember 'Debit' is always on 
the left, and 'Credit' is always on the right. Translate that to 
whatever labels the registers show. (that is, forget the labels, and 
think left/right columns)

Now, to the transactions...

Your initial expense should have been something like:

Dr. Expenses:Travel
   Cr. Assets:Bank

This shows you paying for the ticket from your bank account. The Travel 
account increases, and the Bank account decreases.

The refund at a later date should resemble:

Dr. Assets:Bank
   Cr. Expenses:Travel

This reflects the refund back to your bank, and a corresponding 
reduction of travel expenses. The Travel account decreases, and the Bank 
account increases.

This is essentially a 'reversing' transaction. (which you could enter 
manually, or via Transaction > Add reversing transaction, with the 
original expense transaction selected)

The end result is two transactions on two dates that net both accounts 
to zero change. (they are equal and opposite)

As Liz noted, edit your existing transactions to reflect the above, and 
if there are still any additional transactions that appear to be 
compounding a mess (like an extra errant refund on the credit card) 
simply delete those.

Regards,
Adrien

On 12/13/22 10:31 AM, Mahon Finbar wrote:
> OK, no problem with writing to help.
> 
> The original entry is just an 'ordinary' entry of an expense, on a 
> specific date. No issues.
> 
> However, having removed the original error from the credit card a/c I 
> tried to make an entry in the travel a/c as a 'rebate' as that was the 
> only option available for money  in.
> 
> That resulted in two entries in expenses travel both under the same 
> transfer, one under expense and the other on the next line under rebate.
> 
> I have noticed that the original expenditure is 'transfer' under 
> 'assets' and my bank a/c name, while the two entries under the 
> reimbursement are 'transfer' as expenses:travel. Is there some anomaly 
> there?
> 
> BTW, I am not that rich to have missed 1000€ I just wondered why my 
> credit card a/c entries were so unusual. 😁
> 
> The other question is why does expenses:travel have 'rebate' as a column 
> heading??