Chris, you have me confused a bit. You probably want Derek Atkins (active on this list) who, from what I gather, wrote the larger portion, if not all, of the business features.
I don’t shy away from editing requests, particularly because I understand the devs have their hands full already, but in this case, for base material, I defer. Regards, Adrien > On Jun 28, 2019, at 5:48 PM, Christopher Lam <christopher....@gmail.com> > wrote: > > Adrien you're the current expert in business processes supported by GnuCash. > How would you feel about documenting the known feature and describe database > changes somewhere in wiki? It would be useful as a reference. You may need > some SQL spy. e.g. > > # Creating a customer > - add new row to Customers table, must have currency, name and address > > # Creating invoice > - add new row to Invoice table, must have customer, currency > - add new row to Lots table, ??? > > # Creating a credit note > - ??? > > etc > > On Fri., 28 Jun. 2019, 14:31 Adrien Monteleone, > <adrien.montele...@lusfiber.net> wrote: > Nope. > > 1. Create the credit note and assign the line items either back to the same > original income account(s) used, or to a new one along the lines of “Returns > & Allowances” or “Refunds” or something similar if you want to keep track of > this separately. (this is considered a ‘contra account’ because its normal > balance is opposite of what is expected) > > 1a. Post the credit note. (should default to be assigned to AR) > > 2. Then ‘pay’ it with the liability account you created. > > This will affect your books at each step like so: > > 1a. Income is debited either directly or via the contra account > 1a. AR is credited for the amount of the credit note > 2. AR is debited for the amount of the credit note > 2. The Liabilities:Credit Payments account is credited (your now tracking a > pre-payment liability owed to the client) > > The only step that should be different in this process than what you were > doing before is step 2. Instead of paying with the checking account and > printing a check, you’re transferring the customer’s AR balance to a > liability account. > > Step 1 - the credit note itself, should be the same as before. > > There will then be a new step 3 - which is where you ‘pay’ a future invoice > with all or part of the balance in the new liability account. > > ----- > > *NOTE* > > If you don’t need to keep track of the pre-payment as a liability (not > necessary unless a CPA advised it) then just skip creating that special > account and don’t use it. > > Simply leave the credit note (still created as always) outstanding till it is > needed to offset a future invoice. You don’t even have to send it to the > client if they don’t need it. > > When you need to offset a future invoice, process a payment, choose BOTH the > credit note and the invoice being offset. Enter any additional payment being > made and assign that to the appropriate asset account. Complete the payment. > > Mind you, this is probably the best route to take. It will allow you to still > see the overpayment/pre-payment in their account report, and you can send > them a statement that reflects this. The option with the liability account > makes this very difficult. > > Sorry if I created any confusion. With the original limited info, I was just > offering all the options I could think of. Which route you take is up to you > as it best meets your needs and requirements. > > Regards, > Adrien > > > > > On Jun 28, 2019, at 12:39 AM, Eric Rathhaus (general) > > <rathhaus_...@yahoo.com> wrote: > > > > Something didn’t;t work. I created a credit note for the client and > > created a new account “Credit Prepayments) under Liabilities. When > > creating the note, instead of selecting an income account, I selected the > > new liabilities account and then posted the note. I then tried to process > > a payment for an outstanding invoice using the credit note but nothing > > happened. Where did I go wrong? > > > >> On Jun 26, 2019, at 9:09 PM, Eric Rathhaus (general) > >> <rathhaus_...@yahoo.com> wrote: > >> > >> Thanks! > >> > >>> On Jun 26, 2019, at 7:41 PM, Adrien Monteleone > >>> <adrien.montele...@lusfiber.net> wrote: > >>> > >>> In that case, certainly, you need to use credit notes. > >>> > >>> I don’t see any reason why this ‘wouldn’t work from an accounting > >>> standpoint’ but if you find a problem, instead of cutting a check to the > >>> customer as payment for the credit note, combine this with option #2 I > >>> listed, and this time, use that Liabilities:Customer Deposits account to > >>> ‘pay’ the credit note. This will show you have a liability to them and > >>> then you can decrease it by using it to later pay for future work. The > >>> credit note is cleared out instantly and you still track the money, > >>> however, any Aging Report or Customer Report will no longer reflect this > >>> deposit liability as a credit to them. You’d have to handle that part > >>> manually in an outside spreadsheet. (you could export the Customer/Aging > >>> Report to one sheet tab, export an Account or Transaction Report to > >>> another in the same workbook, and then devise a 3rd tab with references > >>> to those two to create the proper consolidated report) > >>> > >>> Note that doing it this way really isn’t necessary as GnuCash will track > >>> your overall AR and the balance for each customer if you just leave the > >>> Credit Notes hanging around until applied as future payments. > >>> > >>> I’d say you should speak to a local CPA, and then if you still have > >>> options, which one you go with would be a matter of personal preference. > >>> > >>> Regards, > >>> Adrien > >>> > >>>> On Jun 26, 2019, at 8:51 PM, Eric Rathhaus (general) via gnucash-user > >>>> <gnucash-u...@gnucash.org> wrote: > >>>> > >>>> Hi Geert - > >>>> > >>>> I already issued the invoices and processed my clients payments against > >>>> the invoices. These payments are for filing fees to the US government > >>>> for which I subsequently cut checks. I created a job for this client > >>>> that I use to invoice these fees alone. The size of the filing fees is > >>>> too high for me to provide my client short-term loans to cover and then > >>>> invoice later. My client, in turn, won’t issue a payment without an > >>>> invoice. So I issue an invoice to my customer to get the prepayment. > >>>> There are some complicated legal reasons why once per year some of the > >>>> filing fees won’t be cashed by the government. The rest of the year > >>>> everything is fine as I just ensure the client paid all the invoices for > >>>> the special job and then bill for my work and other expenses on invoices > >>>> for each specific job. This year I have over $12k of funds I need to > >>>> return to the client somehow. In the past I created a credit note under > >>>> the special job and sent my client a check. This year they want me to > >>>> use the credit to offset invoices for subsequent work. I like the idea > >>>> of creating a credit note under the special filing fee job I use for > >>>> these payments and then applying the credit against other invoices I > >>>> issue but I’m not sure if it will work from an accounting standpoint. > >>>> > >>>>> On Jun 26, 2019, at 1:29 PM, Geert Janssens > >>>>> <geert.gnuc...@kobaltwit.be> wrote: > >>>>> > >>>>> The way I understand your scenario I believe you can model what the > >>>>> customer > >>>>> does almost one to one into gnucash actions. > >>>>> > >>>>> 1. Customer prepays for expenses -> Create a payment for that customer > >>>>> using > >>>>> Business->Customer->Process Payment > >>>>> You can choose to map this payment to outstanding invoices or not. If > >>>>> you > >>>>> don't, it will simply register a prepayment for the customer. > >>>>> > >>>>> 2. At some point you send an invoice to the user -> Create this invoice > >>>>> using > >>>>> Business->Customer->New Invoice... and post it. > >>>>> > >>>>> 3. Now you can choose - does your invoice have (some of) the prepaid > >>>>> expenses > >>>>> ? If so, apply (part of) that prepayment to your invoice using Business- > >>>>>> Customer->Process Payment > >>>>> After this there may be an outstanding balance the customer still has > >>>>> to pay. > >>>>> > >>>>> 4. If the customer pays that outstanding balance, create the payment > >>>>> via > >>>>> Business->Customer->Process payment. > >>>>> > >>>>> Then repeat for the next cycle/invoice. > >>>>> > >>>>> If you are importing your payments instead of manually entering them, > >>>>> you can > >>>>> also select the payment in the respective account, right-click and > >>>>> choose > >>>>> "Assign as payment..." instead of the above mentioned "Process Payment" > >>>>> > >>>>> As Adrien also suggests at any time you could look at the Receivables > >>>>> Aging or > >>>>> Customer report to see what's the customer's current balance. > >>>>> > >>>>> Regards, > >>>>> > >>>>> Geert > >>>>> > >>>>> Op woensdag 26 juni 2019 21:52:43 CEST schreef Adrien Monteleone: > >>>>>> You have at least 2 options I can think of at the moment: > >>>>>> > >>>>>> #1 - continue to issue credit notes in your system, but don’t send > >>>>>> them out > >>>>>> or pay them with a check. When you have the next positive invoice, > >>>>>> ‘pay’ a > >>>>>> portion (or all) of that invoice with the credit note. Simply process a > >>>>>> payment, select the credit note line and an invoice line you want to > >>>>>> apply > >>>>>> it to in the top part of the window. GnuCash will offset the invoice > >>>>>> with > >>>>>> the credit note for you. If the credit note is more than the invoice, > >>>>>> it > >>>>>> will retain the left over as remaining AR credit to be used on > >>>>>> subsequent > >>>>>> invoices. You can see the customer’s balance any time either by > >>>>>> looking at > >>>>>> an AR aging report, or a Customer Report. Outstanding credit notes > >>>>>> appear > >>>>>> in the Invoices Due Reminder window. > >>>>>> > >>>>>> #2 - If your client regularly pays in advance based on an estimate and > >>>>>> you > >>>>>> invoice later, instead of applying the payment to an invoice, apply it > >>>>>> to a > >>>>>> Liabilities:Customer Deposits account. Then when you create and post > >>>>>> the > >>>>>> final invoice, process a payment for it from this account. You could > >>>>>> keep a > >>>>>> separate deposit account for each customer but that might get tedious. > >>>>>> You > >>>>>> can run a report on the account sorted by payee to show that info and > >>>>>> even > >>>>>> keep that report open in a tab if desired, choosing to refresh it as > >>>>>> needed. If this might only happen for pre-paid expenses, then you can > >>>>>> still > >>>>>> use this method, but only for the pre-paid expense part, which you > >>>>>> could > >>>>>> (or not) choose to invoice separately. > >>>>>> > >>>>>> Regards, > >>>>>> Adrien > >>>>>> > >>>>>>> On Jun 26, 2019, at 1:46 PM, Eric Rathhaus office <e...@ewrlaw.com> > >>>>>>> wrote: > >>>>>>> > >>>>>>> Hi - I have a client for whom I have many jobs. On some of these > >>>>>>> jobs, > >>>>>>> the client prepaid expenses that I did not use. In the past, I’ve > >>>>>>> always > >>>>>>> created a credit note for a refund and sent the client a check. > >>>>>>> However, > >>>>>>> my client prefers instead that I credit this amount towards future > >>>>>>> work. > >>>>>>> I’m not sure how to accomplish this cleanly. I could keep a running > >>>>>>> total of the amount and discount from the total prepayment until it’s > >>>>>>> used up. But this seems clunky and maybe not the best practice. Any > >>>>>>> other suggestions on how to account for the refund against future > >>>>>>> work? > >>>>>>> > >>>>>>> Kind regards, > >>>>>>> > >>>>>>> Eric W. Rathhaus _______________________________________________ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
