[GNC] Tracking UnPaid Bills

[David Cousens]

Louise,

The invoice and bills Business Features in GnuCash are setup
specifically for monitoring payables (what you owe) and receivable
(what is owed to you).  They work using two special accounts, a
Liability account "Accounts Payable " and an asset account "Accounts
Receivable". AFAIK they are enabled by default in GnuCash. 

You could use these, particularly the Accounts Payable to manage your
bills  but it comes with a bit more complexity in recording and some
overhead in learning how to use the features.

When you receive a bill froma vendor, you can enter it in GnuCash with
the menu item BUsiness->Vendor->New Bill. This will allow you to enter
the due date for the bill along with the amount but you will also have
to create a vendor entry for the vendor who created the bill.

When you enter the bill it creates a credit entry in the Accounts
Payable account for the amount of the bill with a corresponding second
debit entry to the expense account associated with the bill.

you can make a payment which is then associated to the specific bill
using the Business->Vendor->Process Payment menu item for the amount
you have paid on the bill. It will create an entry which credits your
check account and debits the Accounts Payable by the amount you have
paid. 


You can find the documentation on these features here
https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v5/C/gnucash-manual/chapter_busnss.html.
You likely won't need all of tbusiness features but the sections on
Bills processing will be relevant.

Under the Reports->Business the Payables Ageing and Vendor Reports will
help in identifying unpaid or partially paid bills


David Cousens




On Sat, 2025-03-15 at 15:09 -0600, griffin wrote:
> I think I'm starting to mess up my accounts.
> 
> I use GnuCash for my home accounts. I know little/nothing about 
> accounting practices, no-one will see my accounts, and they won't be 
> audited.
> 
> So far I have been paying bills by entering a transaction in the
> check 
> register for the amount of the payment, and then using an expense 
> account as the second account, Electricity for example.
> 
> Chequing Register
> Date                 Description           Transfer                
>     
>      R    Deposit    Withdrawal     Balance
> 2025-02-02    PAY Electric & Gas - Direct Energy 
> Expenses~CAD~House~Utilities~Direct Energy    N     60.00           
>     
> 138.96
> 
> Electric Expense Register
> Date                Description         Transfer                    
>     
> R    Expense    Rebate            Balance
> 2025-02-02    PAY Electric & Gas - Direct Energy 
> Assets~CAD~ScotiaBank~Checking                          N 60.00   
>     
>                          157.39
> 
> However, I am at a point in my life where I cannot always pay my
> bills 
> in full, so I need to have a "balance owing" situation. I would also 
> need to have a record of the value of the Electric bill. That is, I
> had 
> an expense of $120 for the electric bill, but having paid $60, I
> still 
> owe $60.
> 
> Can I set things up as I am using GnuCashnow, so that after I've paid
> what I can there is still a debt showing, or do I have to change
> things 
> and use liability accounts. If so, what would the process look like? 
> Would it be like treating the electric bill as it were a credit card?
> How would I set that up?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> -- 
> Louise (Louise/Louise's)
> If you need end-to-end encryption, I have a PGP Key
> 
>