[GNC] Liabilities vs Expenses.

[Michael or Penny Novack]

> Liabilities accounts are used to record money you’re going to have to pay at some time in the future, and I use them from credit and debit cards in my personal Gnucash accounts.

That's a good way for folks doing personal accounting to look at it as 
less likely to have a CONDITIONAL liability on their books.

Folks doing business accounting and especially folks doing 
organizational accounting may have conditional liabilities. Amounts they 
do not necessarily expect to have to pay back at some time. Why? Because 
they expect the condition(s) to be met.

For example, a donor gives $10,000 "to repaint the church". The church 
accepts the money with that condition attached. So the money is in a 
church bank account and ONE WAY of tracking "restricted" would be with a 
matching liability. The church doesn't expect to have to pay that back 
to the donor. Expect to satisfy the condition by paying for a paint  
job. BUT .... suppose something happens so no  painting takes place. The 
church would have to negotiate with that donor "can we use it for 
something else or do you want the money back"

Back to personal bookkeeping. In the time I've been helping with gnucash 
questions, haven't yet seen a question about a conditional liability, 
one you don't expect to have to pay back but could be on the hook for 
it. In other words, nobody has asked "my child took out a loan and I 
co-signed it. How do I record that?" (and what the heck would the other 
side of the transaction be?)

Michael D Novack