[GNC] Recording transactions (date)

[Adrien Monteleone]

While there are other considerations, such as cash versus accrual and 
following the Recognition Principle, I see this as more of a general 
case of Your Books vs. the Bank's Books.

You keep Your Books.

The Bank keeps theirs.

You then reconcile the two. (which does *not* involve changing dates)

Simply copying what the bank has misses the opportunity to catch someone 
else's errors. (they *do* happen)

This is a similar question of entering your own transactions as they 
occur, or just downloading from the bank and importing.

It is a personal choice, but can have other implications as noted.

Regards,
Adrien

On 4/8/24 5:11 PM, R Losey wrote:
> Since I first learned about recording transactions, I have always dated a
> transaction on the date I wrote the check; similarly, when entering credit
> card transactions, I use the date that I actually used the credit card.
> 
> Recently, however, I was having a discussion with a friend and he said that
> he uses the bank or credit card date of entry for all of his transactions.
> 
> I thought this was strange - probably because it is different from the
> method I've used all of my life. Perhaps I am the odd one... or perhaps
> it's merely a matter of choice, so I thought I'd bring it up to this list
> to see what people think about it.
> 
>  From (a very brief) research about this topic, perhaps this is the
> difference between cash basis accounting and accrual accounting?
> 
> 
> After thinking about it for a bit, one issue with using the date that the
> transactions occur is the reports, especially if one has repeating
> transactions.  For example, if the satellite service bill is paid each
> month on the 28th, using my method, I record a transaction on the 28th. My
> friend will see it on the 29th or 30th, but if the weekend or holiday hits
> just right, it can be the 1st or 2nd before he sees it. In the long run
> everything should be the same, but the monthly sub-totals can look odd.
> Checks can be even worse... someone may hang onto one for weeks.