[GNC] Accounting for partial payment of bill from vendor

[Default User]

Hi, Derek. Thanks for the reply.

I was thinking of doing something like that. 
Maybe creating an Income:Discounts Received account, and crediting $20
to that from Liabilities:Accounts Payable.

I had thought of doing that as a separate transaction, added directly 
to the account registers. I did not think of adding a credit split to
the existing transaction, as I thought that might mess up however
GnuCash does its internal handling of payments using Business -> Vendor
-> Find Bill -> Process Payment. 

Since this would seem to be a common scenario, was surprised that I
could not seem to find a way to have GnuCash "handle it automatically".




On Sun, 2024-10-27 at 17:23 -0400, Derek Atkins wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> IANAA....  Having said that, the way I would handle it is to Process
> Payment for $200, and then go in and split the transaction so you
> still
> debit A/P the $200, but only credit $180 to your Checking and credit
> $20
> to whatever counter-account you are using to keep track of your
> discounts.
> 
> -derek
> 
> On Sun, October 27, 2024 5:10 pm, Default User wrote:
> > Hi!
> > 
> > This should be a simple question, with a simple answer.
> > 
> > Let's imagine that a customer purchases computer repair services
> > from a
> > vendor on 2024-10-27, for $200.00, due in 30 days.  There are no
> > taxes
> > involved.ￜ The vendor will give a 10% discount ($20.00) for early
> > payment.
> > 
> > Let's assume, for simplicity, that the customer has these starting
> > Account balances:
> > $0.00     Liabilities:Accounts Payable
> > $0.00     Expenses:Repairs:Computer Repairs
> > $200.00   Assets:Current Assets:Checking Account
> > 
> > The customer uses GnuCash Version 4.13, from the default package
> > repository in Debian 12 GNU/Linux.  He enters the bill from the
> > vendor
> > using: Business -> Vendor -> New Bill. This results in:ￜ
> > $200.00 debit to Expenses:Repairs:Computer Repairs
> >         $200.00 credit to Liabilities:Accounts Payable
> > 
> > Then, later the same day, the customer pays the vendor $180.00 from
> > his
> > checking account.
> > This results in:
> > $180.00 debit to Liabilities:Accounts Payable
> >         $180.00 credit to Assets:Curent Assets:Checking Account
> > 
> > Since he has a $20.00 discount for early payment, he now owes the
> > vendor nothing.
> > 
> > So, how does the customer enter the transaction(s) in GnuCash?
> > 
> > If he uses Business -> Vendor -> Find Bill -> Process Payment,
> > entering
> > a Payment amount of $180.00, the result is :
> > $180.00 debit to Liabilities:Accounts Payable
> >         $180.00 credit to Assets:Current Assets:Checking Account
> > 
> > The Asssets:Current Assets:Checking Account balance is now $20.00,
> > which is correct.
> > But the Liabilities:Accounts Payable balance is $20.00, which
> > should
> > not be correct, as the customer received a $20.00 discount for
> > early
> > payment.
> > 
> > But if the customer instead uses Business -> Vendor -> Find Bill ->
> > Process Payment, entering a Payment amount of $200.00, the result
> > is :
> > 
> > $200.00 debit to Liabilities:Accounts Payable
> >         $200.00 credit to Assets:Current Assets:Checking Account
> > The Accounts Payable balance is now $0.00, which would seem to be
> > correct, as the customer now owes the vendor nothing.
> > But the Checking Account balance is now $0.00, which would of
> > course
> > not be correct.
> > 
> > So, what is the correct way to handle this situation, so that these
> > account balances result:
> > $0.00   Liabilities:Accounts Payable
> > $20.00  Assets:Current Assets:Checking Account
> > $200.00 Expenses:Repairs:Computer Repairs
> > 
> > ???
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > 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.
> > 
> 
>