[GNC] Keeping tenant accounts on Gnucash - periodic 'rent owing' ?

[flywire]

Arthur,

Your original message was clarified to be about automatically posting
weekly rent so a rental statement can be produced with the balance of the
account at that date. This is a very simple schedule of regular dates and
amounts but GnuCash can't do it without manual workarounds. (Interestingly
it calculates much more complicated loan repayments.)

In a recent message, you replied "use the business features might be the
way to go" with Accounts Receivable. Do you understand the comment Michael
made about Accounts Receivable only working when accrual accounting is
used? In cash accounting income is recorded when payment is made but once
an invoice is posted under accrual accounting it is recorded as income. If
accrual accounting is used there is no way to know with say a normal profit
and loss report if the income has been received (see attached
TransactionReport.txt). This is a problem if you use cash accounting for a
personal tax return.

I don't think weekly rental statements are realistic so I've used 4 weekly
with the Business Account template, and the attached reports are for the
following test scenario:
* Tenant T Smith commenced 01 Mar 2020 with a lease at $250 pw payable
every 4 weeks.
* Tenant deposits into bank account: 06 Mar 2020 $750, 28 Apr 2020 $2000
* Reports are run 15 May 2020
* Just a mention that some users might have both Expense:Rent and
Income:Rent accounts which is a bad idea because eventually, they are
likely to inadvertently use the wrong account

I've never used GnuCash Business Finances so this was a good opportunity
for a first impression. GnuCash has a good tutorial for Personal Finances
but there's no equivalent for Business Finance. An invoice must be prepared
for every rent due transaction and the payment processed. That's an
incredible amount of manual processing for a simple schedule when, for
example, dates must be entered for invoices without seeing a list of
current invoices, and payment amounts without seeing the deposit in the
bank account. Especially so when tenant deposit dates and amounts don't
match invoices.

Every manual process is a risk and eventually, an error occurs. For me,
GnuCash would work well for your rental accounting but the process is too
complex involving too much risk just using the features of GnuCash to
produce a rental statement. In time I'd be interested to know what you
settle on.

>
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Customer Report

 15/05/2020
T Smith

Date Range:
   Date     Due Date   Reference    Type    Description    Debits    Credits     Balance
01/03/2020 01/03/2020 000001     Invoice                $1,000.00              $1,000.00
06/03/2020                       Payment                             $750.00     $250.00
29/03/2020 29/03/2020 000002     Invoice                $1,000.00              $1,250.00
26/04/2020 26/04/2020 000003     Invoice                $1,000.00              $2,250.00
28/04/2020                       Payment                           $2,000.00     $250.00
Period Total                                            $3,000.00  $2,750.00     $250.00
Total Due                                                                        $250.00
Pre-Payment  Current   0-30 days 31-60 days 61-90 days  91+ days     Total
     $0.00    $250.00      $0.00      $0.00      $0.00      $0.00    $250.00
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Transaction Report

From 01/01/2020 to 15/05/2020

      Date    Num Description         Transfer from/to                 Debit     Credit

Assets:Accounts Receivable
   01/03/2020   1 T Smith     Income:Rent                            $1,000.00
   06/03/2020     T Smith     Assets:Current Assets:Checking Account              $750.00
   29/03/2020   2 T Smith     Income:Rent                            $1,000.00
   26/04/2020   3 T Smith     Income:Rent                            $1,000.00
   28/04/2020     T Smith     Assets:Current Assets:Checking Account            $2,000.00
   Total For Accounts Receivable                                       $250.00

Assets:Current Assets:Checking Account
   06/03/2020     T Smith     Assets:Accounts Receivable               $750.00
   28/04/2020     T Smith     Assets:Accounts Receivable             $2,000.00
   Total For Checking Account                                                   $2,750.00

Income:Rent
   01/03/2020   1 T Smith     Assets:Accounts Receivable                        $1,000.00
   29/03/2020   2 T Smith     Assets:Accounts Receivable                        $1,000.00
   26/04/2020   3 T Smith     Assets:Accounts Receivable                        $1,000.00
   Total For Rent                                                               $3,000.00

Grand Total                                                                         $0.00