[GNC] accounts receivable for rent..

[Adrien Monteleone]

On 3/5/22 12:50 AM, arthur brogard via gnucash-user wrote:
We have only one property.  Only one tenant.  Simplest possible case I 
guess.
> I'm thinking I must:
> . Create an 'accounts receivable'  account.That would be an income account I guess.  'Other income' ?

Accounts Receivable is an Asset account.

As David noted, if you go through the setup wizard and choose 'Business 
Accounts' you'll get it created automatically for you.

Though you only have one tenant, I'd still recommend to go the route of 
using the 'Business Features' because it is the only of the 3 I 
mentioned that has the reports you need already created and ready to use.

Doing this manually or with Scheduled Transactions (SX) will also 
require manually crafting 'statement of account' type reports. The 
little time spent setting up your Tenant as a Customer, and creating 
(and then duplicating) periodic 'Invoices' for rent will more than be 
outweighed by the time saved generating the desired reports and tracking 
the Tenant's payments.

> 
> Every week I put the rent amount in there.  (that's what I"d like to have happen automatically)  Then I can print out that balance and show it to him: that's what you owe today.
> Somehow what he pays has to go into that account to reflect that he's paid.


The only downside is you can't auto-post when rent is due. You'll need 
to find a way to remind yourself to duplicate and post those invoices 
each period. (month/week, etc.)

It is possible to future-post invoices, but that can introduce 
additional 'complications' you may not be prepared for at first while 
getting your feet wet. I'd recommend just posting them as needed for now.

After you post new invoices, you can give the tenant a 'Customer Report' 
(which you can rename of course) showing the amount due. (which can 
reflect past due amounts, with aging, as well as previous payments, and 
what periods those payments applied to.


> 
> They pay by direct deposit to my bank account.
> So what do I do?  Credit his AR account and debit cash at bank?
> When I become aware he's paid into my bank account.  

Correct.

You would do that by using the Process Payment function in GnuCash to 
apply his payment to the rent 'Invoice' you already posted. When you 
enter the payment, you get the option to choose the account the money 
went into.

Then print out  a statement showing his balance.
> That's  how it goes?

Essentially, yes. Once you've got everything set up, you can give him a 
'Customer Report' which is otherwise known as 'Statement of Account'.

I'd also highly recommend that you find either an online or textbook 
resource for basic Accounting. We can help here with some things, but 
this is not really an Accounting list. We can't give formal advice. We 
can only help with generalities and 'how to do it in GnuCash' after you 
already know how to do it 'on paper.'

https://www.principlesofaccounting.com/

Might be a good place to start. (But first, read the Help Manual and the 
Tutorial & Concepts Guide for GnuCash)

Regards,
Adrien