[GNC] Consolidated billing of two credit cards

rsbrux rsbrux at yahoo.com
Mon Jul 8 07:01:24 EDT 2024 

Many thanks for all the useful tips!

Just to  clarify:

We don't use checks where I live (Switzerland).

The credit card companies here tend to send the statements so close to 
the payment due date that one is likely to incur interest fees if one 
waits until the statement arrives to pay the balance.

I have therefore authorized the credit card issuer to request payment of 
the outstanding balance directly from the bank which has my current 
account (what Americans would call a checking account).

The bank is also authorized to pay the credit card balance on demand.

The two credit cards already have a parent account (corresponding to the 
issuer) in GnuCash.

The reconciliation process in GnuCash generates a separate transaction 
for each credit card, resulting in two charges to the current account in GC.

 From the advice below, the obvious solution seems to be to combine the 
two payments in the GC current account into one payment with an extra split.

I like this idea better than merging the two credit card accounts, even 
though it still requires manual intervention.

Thanks again for your helpful advice!

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 7 Jul 2024 11:29:37 -0500
> From: Mark at Lorimark<mark at lorimarksolutions.com>
> To:gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Subject: Re: [GNC] Consolidated billing of two credit cards
> Message-ID:
> 	<0129b913-c1d2-4782-b782-30c697878119 at lorimarksolutions.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
>
> (not an accountant)
>
> I think you can make your one (1) payment to the bank, and then split
> the portions of that payment for each card;
>
> account      Dr    Cr
> Bank       $1000
>     CC1             $400
>     CC2             $600
>
> So you're writing out one check and paying it towards the two credit
> cards... does that resolve your issue?
>
> ~mark petryk
> ~c:469-556-5075
> ~w:http://www.lorimarksolutions.com
>
> On 7/7/24 10:54, rsbrux via gnucash-user wrote:
>> I have two credit cards from the same bank, which were previously
>> handled completely separately and are therefor represented by separate
>> accounts in GnuCash.
>>
>> Now the bank has consolidated the statements, but not completely.? There
>> is now a sinlge statement, but the charges and balance due are listed
>> and summed up separateky for each card.
>>
>> However, the total due for both cards is now applied as a single charge
>> to my bank account. Because of the separate totals on the statement, it
>> is still convenient to reconcile the two credit card accounts separately.
>>
>> However, this results in two separate charges to the GnuCash bank
>> account, which I then have to mentally add together to reconcile the
>> bank account.
>>
>> This has led me to consider merging the two credit card accounts in
>> GnuCash.? How easy is this?? Will this really make things easier, or am
>> I better off sticking with the status quo?
>>
>> Thanks in advance for any tips!
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> gnucash-user mailing list
>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>> -----
>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 7 Jul 2024 09:41:50 -0700
> From: Steve Butler<stephen.m.butler51 at gmail.com>
> To: Mark at Lorimark<mark at lorimarksolutions.com>
> Cc: GnuCash Users<gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> Subject: Re: [GNC] Consolidated billing of two credit cards
> Message-ID:
> 	<CALTSo2gOvb1SQjSppZitmB-WxQyap_ygKjSZHO3_r9vmjpyMoA at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> I presume the two CC accounts are in the Liabilities section.  My approach
> depends on if I can download the transactions separately.  If so, I would
> create a parent placeholder Liability account for that bank and move both
> CC accounts under it.
>
> At payment time write it against your checking account (asset) with the
> total amount on that line of the transaction with the other side split
> between the two CC liability accounts.
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jul 7, 2024, 09:30 Mark at Lorimark<mark at lorimarksolutions.com>
> wrote:
>
>> (not an accountant)
>>
>> I think you can make your one (1) payment to the bank, and then split
>> the portions of that payment for each card;
>>
>> account      Dr    Cr
>> Bank       $1000
>>     CC1             $400
>>     CC2             $600
>>
>> So you're writing out one check and paying it towards the two credit
>> cards... does that resolve your issue?
>>
>> ~mark petryk
>> ~c:469-556-5075
>> ~w:http://www.lorimarksolutions.com
>>
>> On 7/7/24 10:54, rsbrux via gnucash-user wrote:
>>> I have two credit cards from the same bank, which were previously
>>> handled completely separately and are therefor represented by separate
>>> accounts in GnuCash.
>>>
>>> Now the bank has consolidated the statements, but not completely.  There
>>> is now a sinlge statement, but the charges and balance due are listed
>>> and summed up separateky for each card.
>>>
>>> However, the total due for both cards is now applied as a single charge
>>> to my bank account. Because of the separate totals on the statement, it
>>> is still convenient to reconcile the two credit card accounts separately.
>>>
>>> However, this results in two separate charges to the GnuCash bank
>>> account, which I then have to mentally add together to reconcile the
>>> bank account.
>>>
>>> This has led me to consider merging the two credit card accounts in
>>> GnuCash.  How easy is this?  Will this really make things easier, or am
>>> I better off sticking with the status quo?
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance for any tips!
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> gnucash-user mailing list
>>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>>> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
>>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>>> -----
>>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>> _______________________________________________
>> gnucash-user mailing list
>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>> -----
>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Sun, 7 Jul 2024 10:27:23 -0700
> From: "Stan Brown (using GC 4.14)"<stan+gc at fastmail.fm>
> To:gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Subject: Re: [GNC] Consolidated billing of two credit cards
> Message-ID:<99dcb65c-7edb-4608-b832-17e6c9c474c3 at fastmail.fm>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
>
> On 2024-07-07 09:29, Mark at Lorimark wrote:
>> (not an accountant)
>>
>> I think you can make your one (1) payment to the bank, and then split
>> the portions of that payment for each card;
>>
>> account????? Dr??? Cr
>> Bank?????? $1000
>> ? CC1???????????? $400
>> ? CC2???????????? $600
>>
>> So you're writing out one check and paying it towards the two credit
>> cards... does that resolve your issue?
> That's similar to what I was going to suggest, but I think you've
> reversed debits and credits.
>
> rsbrux's bank account is an asset on rsbrux's books, so writing a check
> or having an automatic payment made reduces the balance, which is a credit.
>
> The two credit cards are liabilities on rsbrux's books, so the
> reductions in their balances through paying the balances due are debits.
>
> This is an easy mistake to make, because the banks use the words "debit"
> and "credit" to match how things are on _their_ books, which is exactly
> opposite to how they are on the consumer's books.
>
> The transaction I would enter is:
>
> Debit to My Credit Card #1: $400
> Debit to My Credit Card #2: $600
> Credit to My Bank Account: $1000
>
> Stan Brown
> Tehachapi, CA, USA
> https://BrownMath.com
>
>> ~mark petryk
>> ~c:469-556-5075
>> ~w:http://www.lorimarksolutions.com
>>
>> On 7/7/24 10:54, rsbrux via gnucash-user wrote:
>>> I have two credit cards from the same bank, which were previously
>>> handled completely separately and are therefor represented by separate
>>> accounts in GnuCash.
>>>
>>> Now the bank has consolidated the statements, but not completely.?
>>> There is now a sinlge statement, but the charges and balance due are
>>> listed and summed up separateky for each card.
>>>
>>> However, the total due for both cards is now applied as a single
>>> charge to my bank account. Because of the separate totals on the
>>> statement, it is still convenient to reconcile the two credit card
>>> accounts separately.
>>>
>>> However, this results in two separate charges to the GnuCash bank
>>> account, which I then have to mentally add together to reconcile the
>>> bank account.
>>>
>>> This has led me to consider merging the two credit card accounts in
>>> GnuCash.? How easy is this?? Will this really make things easier, or
>>> am I better off sticking with the status quo?
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance for any tips!
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> gnucash-user mailing list
>>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>>> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
>>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>>> -----
>>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>> _______________________________________________
>> gnucash-user mailing list
>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>> -----
>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.

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