[GNC] Invoices processing with Shopify payments?

[Timothy Quinn]

Hello, Etienne.

(As I was typing this I see that Adrien has also responded but we are saying the same thing.)

Here is an earlier posting to this group (I have seen at least two) describing how to handle a similar situation (Paypal in that user’s case, but the same problem) and it’s the same advice Adrien shared:

https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2016-December/067738.html

I have a similar situation. With Venmo when a client specifies that they received a “service” Venmo states they offer the buyer some level of purchase protection. Venmo deducts a service fee for themselves and Venmo adds to our Venmo account the client’s payment less that service fee.

What I do is what the posting I linked to says and what Adrien described:

1. I had set up an expense account called Venmo Service Fees.(You need to do this only once.)
2. When the client pays, use Gnucash’s Business -> Customer -> Process Payment and (temporarily) record the full amount the client paid. 
3. Go to General Journal (or, as Adrien points out, the specific register that shows the received payent) and find the entry for the payment you just processed. Change the "Funds In" amount for your asset to the amount you actually received (not what the client paid).
4. Gnucash helpfully and automatically creates a new line as part of that same entry called “Imbalance" with the difference filled in as the “Funds In” amount which should be the amount of the service charge. Change “Imbalance" to “Venmo Service Fees” (or whatever name you gave the expense account you are using to accumulate the service fees). 
5. Remember to press Enter or click the Enter icon at the top of the screen of the screen.

This works nicely for my situation. The service fee expense account records all the separate fee charges, and the customer report makes sense to the customer if you ever need to share it with him/her because the payment amount shown there is the full amount the customer paid. 

Hope that helps.

- Tim

> On Jan 16, 2023, at 6:13 AM, Etienne <gnucash at boeziek.nl> wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I am trying to use GNUCash to deal with Shopify orders and payments. How do you process payments to an invoice when there is a Shopify payment fee? I have been scratching my head over this.
> A customer buys something of USD 40, with taxes included. So I create an invoice in GNUCash with a Tax table to calculate the VAT I have to pay.
> 
> The customer pays the USD 40 to Shopify, Shopify charges a payment fee based on what payment method the customer uses, e.g. a USD 1 credit card fee.
> So my Shopify balance is then 40 - 1 = 39 dollars
> Then after a week or so, Shopify pays me, in this case USD 39 dollars.
> 
> I can’t seem to process that deposit from Shopify as a payment to that invoice as it is USD 1 off as my Invoice is USD 40 and so it my Shopify A/Receivables in GNUCash.
> 
> In the invoice I can’t add the credit card fee, as GNUCash does not allow Expenses to be added to an Invoice.
> 
> Sure I can add the payment to my back account when Shopify pays me:
> bank: 39
> Shopify A/Receivables: -40
> expenses: shopify payments: 1
> 
> When you have multiple orders and 1 payment from Shopify you have multiple payment fees, so I would need to add them up.
> However, I would like to see the payment expenses for each order, to allocate them to the correct expense account (different product categories, so multiple shopify payments expense accounts).
> 
> 
> Alternatively, I could skip using Invoices and just enter the Shopify orders as normal transactions in my A/Receivables:
> Shopify A/R: 39
> income:Net Sales: 30
> liabilities: taxes VAT: 10
> expenses: shopify payment: -1
> 
> 
> Any thoughts of how I can use Invoices or should i just use transactions? Invoices create the benefit that I can import them from a CSV file and have the same invoice numbers of Shopify in my GNUCash too.
> 
> Thanks!
> Etienne
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