[GNC] Tracking UnPaid Bills

[griffin]

Sorry, but I'm still having an issue with this process.

Setting the bill value as a transfer from the expense account to the 
liability account is working fine, as is paying off the liability from 
the chequing account.

However, dealing with a refund is still causing a problem.

1.) If I make a deposit into the chequing account from the liability 
account, Gnucash makes the balance of the liability account go up, not 
down towards zero. Making the value a negative number, only results in 
the value moving to the other column (see the second point).

2.) If I make the transfer from the liability account in the decrease 
column, setting the balance to zero, the transaction appears in the 
chequing account as a withdrawal.

This is all controlled by GnuCash. Am I doing something, or is GnuCash 
doing something of which  I'm not aware.



On 2025-03-17 12:01 p.m., griffin wrote:
> I have been trying this, and I've hit a small issue.
>
> I made an over payment to my phone bill, and then moved to another 
> carrier, so I was over paid in the liability account.
>
> When I tried to "refund" this overpayment to my chequing account 
> GnuCash either doubles the liability, or withdraws the refund from the 
> chequing account.
>
> (...and yes, I feed my dog Dog Foof!!!😳)
>
> I don't seem to be able to reduce the liability to zero, and increase 
> the chequing account balance.
>
> What have I done wrong?
>
>
>
>
>
> On 2025-03-17 10:56 a.m., R Losey wrote:
>> On Sun, Mar 16, 2025 at 11:56 AM Michael or Penny Novack via 
>> gnucash-user <
>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:
>>
>>> On 3/16/2025 12:13 AM, R Losey wrote:
>>>> Hi. I'd just set such accounts up as sub-accounts under Liabilities.
>>> Using
>>>> your example (electricity)
>>>>
>>>> 1) Create an "Electricity" account under "Liabilites" 
>>>> (alternatively, you
>>>> could use the provider as the name of the account
>>>> 2) Using your $120 bill as an example, when you pay $60 and owe 
>>>> them $60,
>>>> you'd create a three-way split
>>>>          Checking: decrease (credit) $60
>>>>          Expenses->Utilities->Electricity: increase (debit) $120
>>>>          Liabilities->Electricity: increase (credit) $60
>>> You COULD do it that way. Splits when paying the bill.
>>>
>>> But I suggested entering the expense/liability when the bill arrives
>>> with an effective date the due date of the bill. Then when you pay all
>>> or part of the bill, the transaction just liability/bank account. No
>>> split transactions involved. (well MAYBE no splits -- besides being
>>> billed for electricity might also have late fees and/or interest
>>> charges. You MIGHT just bundle those into electricity expense but also
>>> might instead might want to see how much you are being hit with late
>>> fees and interest on all your bills).
>>>
>>> Michael D Novack
>>>
>>> Your suggestion is even better and simpler (no splits); I was trying to
>> think of how to do it the way you suggest, but somehow confused 
>> myself and
>> couldn't figure out what the two transactions would look like. (I don't
>> know what I was thinking; it's perfectly obvious today).
>>
>>
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