[GNC] Dealing with the time delay between withdrawal and deposit

[Kalpesh Patel]

I normally put down the date I transact/write check, etc., and then when I import transaction from the financial institutions I update the date to the one that was posted with them. This assures me that there are sufficient funds in the account to cover all outstanding transactions without incurring any type of fee.

This was discussed not too far distance in time (few months ago), and, however, it was bought up that what I do is not a good idea for number of good reasons (along with examples), and specifically when the book is used for official record keeping.

For me this works as the book is just for me, myself and I, but as Adrien mentioned you may need to resort to 'suspense' account if you truly want correctly timed denoted one. IMHO, the transaction should have the date it was transacted on, and then the import should permit insert of the posted date for in its leg of the transaction (three total dates).  Thus when you are in the general ledger it should "sort" by the transaction date and then each individual register should "sort" by its leg of the transaction.

-----Original Message-----
From: Adrien Monteleone <adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net> 
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2026 11:58 AM
To: gnucash-user at lists.gnucash.org
Subject: Re: [GNC] Dealing with the time delay between withdrawal and deposit

If you just want to record one of the dates, but don't need to run reports using it, pick one of the transactions (usually the first one) and enter that with its date. You can then add the final deposit date in one of the various fields: Notes, Action, Memo. (alternatively, record it when you make the deposit, edit the date when it clears, and make a note of the initial date instead)

If you need both dates available to run reports, use a clearing (or as otherwise noted 'suspense') account. The first transaction is not to the eventual account but to the clearing/suspense account. Then when it is done, you make a transaction from that account to the real final intended account. Your question sounds like a case of electronic transfer from one account to another, so I'd go this route as you'll want both dates as they affect two real-world accounts.

Otherwise, this sounds like the age-old issue of writing a check and it not clearing the bank for a while. The simplest way to handle that is to simply not worry about it and mark the transaction 'cleared' when you find out it has been completed if you find that out before the next statement. If not, you'd just reconcile it when you get that statement.

If this is a case of physical withdrawal and physical deposit from one account then into another (rather than electronically) Any of the above would work, but you'd have twice the entries. (I always try to model the real-world activity as closely as I can.)

Regards,
Adrien

On 5/3/26 4:27 PM, Louise wrote:
> I would like to ask how you folks deal with the 5 - 7 days between 
> when a withdrawal is made, and the resulting transfer is deposited.
> 
> It would be nice to have the withdrawal date and the deposit date 
> correct, but I see no way of making it happen.
> 
> It is only a small thing, but if I could I would like to remove the 
> "confusion".