[GNC] How to record payments for several items paid with a single transaction?

[Michael Hendry]

On 23 Jul 2023, at 10:03, Chris Green <cl at isbd.net> wrote:

> 
>> 
<SNIP>
> Petty Cash is also used in the UK for this.

…but is primarily a mechanism used for staff to make small purchases of office sundries where setting up an account with the vendor is unnecessary and it’s not appropriate for the member of staff to have a company cheque book or credit card.

In my past incarnation as an NHS family doctor, we also used Petty Cash to receive small cash payments for non-NHS reports, certificates etc, with the approval of our accountant. This generally meant that the total in the Petty Cash box gradually increased until the next visit to the bank to deposit cheques was made, and the surplus cash was deposited at the same time.

> 
> In reality (as in my reply just now) I only record deposits once a
> month or so.  However there is of course nothing at all to prevent me
> putting the actual date of the service where the money was collected
> for the entry in the Assets:Current:Cash account.
> 
> However I'm still not quite clear how the various accounts work
> together.  At present I have Assets, Equity, Expenses and Income top
> level accounts.  Income is split into such things as Collections,
> Offertory Box, Fund Raising, etc.
> 
> If I add an Assets:Current Assets:Cash to record the various amounts
> from collections, offertory box, etc. before they are deposited how do
> they then get recorded as Income when the cash is moved from Assets:
> Current Assets:Cash to Assets:Current Assets:Bank ?

You should record the cash income from the various collections etc to the Assets:Current Assets:Cash via the appropriate Income: account as you receive it (or as you count up the cash in the bags), preferably with the date on which the collection took place. When you eventually come to make the deposit into your current bank account, this is simply recorded as a transfer between two asset accounts - it is no longer income, any more than paying off your credit card bill from your current account needs to be accounted for as Expenditure (in this case you are transferring money from an asset account (your bank) to a liability account (your credit card).

Regards,

Michael