[GNC] How can I book Sales when invoice is paid vs when posted?

[Michael or Penny Novack]

I'm not going to comment on "does that sound right?" The accounts used 
and workflow to temporarily convert accrual to cash are an accounting 
matter, not a gnucash matter. As for there not being a "setting", that 
make no sense. The difference between "cash" and "accrual" is LOGICAL 
(the timing when certain financial events are considered to have happened).

In other words, suppose you were keeping books on the "cash basis". You 
sold a customer some goods or services and sent them an invoice (maybe 
just typed one out). At this point, for legal purposes that amount IS a 
"receivable", and you could sue in court if the purchaser refused to pay 
(or say died -- you are asking the estate to pay). That you do not 
record this in the books as a "sale" until paid is besides the point.

Note also that whether you can freely choose to report on the cash basis 
or accrual basis or be forced to use one or the other may depend on the 
rules for your jurisdiction.

Michael D Novack


On 3/5/2024 12:34 AM, Blake Hannaford wrote:
> Thank you all for helpful responses so far.   It is too bad that accrual vs
> cash invoice accounting is not a setting.   At any rate I usually only have
> a handful of outstanding invoices at a time.    I propose the following:
>
> 1) At end of year, figure out the total dollar amount of unpaid invoices.
>
> 2) Create a new Income account "unpaid sales"
> 3) Debit sales by the unpaid total and credit "unpaid sales"
> 4) Ideally see if "unpaid sales" can be omitted from the income statement
> report.
> 5) Otherwise, manually subtract "unpaid sales" from Total income to get
> income tax liability
> 6) At start of next year, keep "unpaid sales" but zero out all other income
> accounts (transfer to year-end equity - my usual system for income and
> expenses)
> 7) During the year, either move the total back to sales immediately or when
> each invoice is paid, manually debit "unpaid sales" and credit "sales" for
> that amount.
>
> Does that sound right?
> BH
>

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There is no possibility of social justice on a dead planet except the equality of the grave.