[GNC] Tracking UnPaid Bills

[Derek Atkins]

Hi.

Please remember to CC gnucash-user on all replies...

Define "overpaid".

Going step-by-step:

1. Liability -> Expense    (e.g. you are billed for $50)
2. Bank -> Liability       (e.g. you over-pay $75)
.. At this point, the Liability should say that they owe you!
3. Liability -> Bank       (e.g. They refund you $50)
.. At this point, the Liability should be $0

Of course, your situation might be different.

-derek

On Tue, March 18, 2025 2:51 pm, Griffin wrote:
> I overpaid, so the liability is showing I owe. They send me a cheque to
> zero out the balance, and send me a cheque that I bank.
>
> On March 18, 2025 11:22:34 a.m. MDT, Derek Atkins <derek at ihtfp.com> wrote:
>>Hi,
>>You are doing something wrong.  So let me ask you a question:
>>
>>How does the refund work in real-life?
>>
>>My guess is that the refund is actually a "reduction of expense" --
>>because it's coming from the Vendor directly.  It should probably not hit
>>the liability account at all, unless the goal is the reduce the amount
>> you
>>owe to the vendor.  So either it is:
>>
>>  Expense -> Liability   (reducing how much you owe)
>>or
>>  Expense -> Bank  (they sent you a check and you deposited it).
>>
>>-derek
>>
>>On Tue, March 18, 2025 1:12 pm, griffin wrote:
>>> 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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>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>>--
>>       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
>>       derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
>>       Computer and Internet Security Consultant
>>
>


-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant