[GNC] Dealing with discounts when not using Business Features

[Michael Hendry]

On 31 May 2023, at 20:46, Vincent Dawans <dawansv at gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> Personally I would create your Discounts and Bursary accounts as income accounts, possibly even as subaccounts of your main income account for that product/service. Yes they will only have rebates (debits) in them, but they are not an expense, they are a form of reduced income (by choice). The distinction is important in terms of "true accounting representation". Think of it with an extreme case. If I said I charge $1 million for this email advice, but then give you a $999,999.99 discount, as a financial analyst, would you want to see a P&L with a $1 million income and a  $999,999.99 expense or just a $0.01 income and zero expenses? Because you control each side here (the price charged and the rebate), they are one and the same, so it would be the second scenario.
> 
> By it's OK to put it as a "debit" income account, you still have the info in the details of the accounts and can get it out in a report to show how much income you forfeited, but a high-level P&L will give you the correct income (with the rebate) instead of the extra expense.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Vincent Dawans

Thanks, Vincent, Murugan and Stan.

As I said, I haven’t been using the Business Features because they’re an added complication, and because our accounts are kept on a cash basis.

A Bursary is a grant made to assist a talented student who might otherwise be unable to afford a course. It’s doesn’t usually involve competition (like a scholarship), and is intended to encourage a talented individual to take up a course s/he couldn’t otherwise afford.

I’ll look further into Vincent’s and Stan’s suggestions, as I don’t think my method of receiving the students’ payments into the Income: Course Fees account and then topping them up from Expense: Discount and Expense:Bursary to reach the fee that would actually be due will work.

Regards,

Michael