[GNC] Don't get this at all

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

On Mon, January 31, 2022 8:54 pm, Don Robertson wrote:
> Hi - I have been looking at Gnucash for a while and would like to use it
> for my very simple business. But I am just finding it so complicated and
> counter intuitive I am thinking I might just use a spread sheet. Yes, it
> is that simple.
>
> In the past I have used Quicken and MoneyWorks, so I am not a novice
> when it comes to double entry book-keeping or to paying sales tax and so
> forth.
>
> So here is an example. I have set up a chart of accounts, and set up our
> sales tax rates, and two accounts - one for sales tax received and one
> for sales tax paid.
>
> On Sunday, I went to the hardware and bought a cupboard to store our
> business material in. I have imported the transaction from the bank, and
> have debited the bank account and credited the appropriate expense
> account.
>
> I just do not see any way to apply sales tax to the transaction. I have
> looked at the documentation, and it does not seem to me to say anything
> about this.
>
> So okay. I add a bill, add a vendor, post the bill to accounts
> receivable. I don't want to do this everytime I buy a box of pencils,
> but fine. Now I do not see any way to say the bill has been paid by the
> transaction imported earlier. If I hit pay, it adds a new transaction.
>
> Pretty much makes importing transactions a waste of time. Worse - it's
> completely pointless.
>
> It seems to me that this is a pretty basic thing to do. Maybe I'm stupid
> or missing something but I can't see how this is supposed to be done.

The only time taxes are automatically computed from a Tax Table is via
Invoices and Bills.  For simple entries, it's easier to just enter the
amount by hand.

However, you can still record taxes when you enter a transaction. Just
make a split transaction.  For example, if you go to the store and buy a
cupboard for $100, and pay 5% tax, your total is $105.  So you would
credit your payment form (e.g. Liabilities:Credit Card) the full $105, and
then you would split that and debit Expenses:Cupboard $100 and
Expenses:Taxes Paid $5.

You can pull these numbers right off the receipt as you enter the
transaction into GnuCash.

You could also get GnuCash to compute it by typing:  100.00 * 0.05 into
the debit cell.

Hope this helps!

Happy GnuCashing.

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-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant