[GNC] Reimbursement for fraud

[Patrick James]

This is much more about accounting than how to use GnuCash.

Personally I've only had to deal with relatively small sums.

For transactions that I have no knowledge of, no involvement in, when I report the suspected fraud, my credit card issuer immediately issued a credit to my account, so I was whole in a matter of hours. I also anticipated that my chance of recovery was basically 100%.

Because of the above factors, I did not record anything on my books. If I thought I'd have to record a loss for the fraud, then I'd have some decisions to make. Again, for my personal books, I would record the fraud loss when there was a final determination.

Another option is to have a liability account.

If you don't recover, then it's a fraud expense.

If you do recover, then just record a reversing transaction.

Finally, if you're provided the funds during the investigation, then you need to decide how to treat the funds during the investigation.

Again, I enter nothing during the fraud investigation, and I only record a transaction if I were to suffer a loss.

Also I've had hybrid situations.

Once I purchased merchandise from a legitimate seller, but the seller refused to ship right away. I do not know what happened, but the seller shipped right after I wrote my dispute. About 60 days after ordering, and, importantly, the seller's shipping date was way past the FTC 30 day standard. I was able to recover my funds, but in this instance I did not record anything until after the final determination. I was provided access to the funds right after the dispute.

I viewed my chances of recovery has "high" during the investigation, and I did have to send additional information, but I did not record the outcome until it was final.


> On 06/14/2026 10:20 AM PDT Robert Putman <woodvet.rp at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>  
> I had a check to a credit card company that was washed and cashed by
> someone else.  We reported it as fraud and was eventually repaid.  How do I
> record this in GnuCash so that it doesn't appear as income but that will
> balance in GnuCash?  Sorry, I am not an accountant and don't know this
> stuff.
> Thanks,
> Bob
>