Wow, what a great help group! Lots of great advice from many knowledgeable people.
I settled on making an expense account out of google play ("Google_play_stuff") and matching it to a checking account, skipping the credit card part since, with me, that is always transitory and instantaneous anyway. (Hope that doesn't bite me down the road.) Maybe it's unimportant but I do like not having those red negative numbers on the accounts, even if everything does seem to balance. Thanks everybody! Also, I hope I did the "cc" thing correctly. On Mon, Aug 6, 2018 at 5:50 PM, Stephen M. Butler <kg...@arrl.net> wrote: > On 08/06/2018 02:27 PM, Adrien Monteleone wrote: >> Certainly, if you have a card tied to the account and you are charged for >> each purchase on the spot, then no need for the mess I described. >> >> When you purchase: >> >> Dr. Expenses:Entertainment (software, whatever) >> Cr. Credit Card (the one that will be charged) >> >> Use ‘Google Play’ as the Description for the transaction and the actual >> title purchased as either the Note or the Memo on the expense split. >> >> When entering expenses, I generally use the Description field for the >> ‘Vendor’ being paid. (who I purchased from) >> >> Otherwise, when you pay the credit card bill, that’s like any other >> situation, as Google Play is no longer part of the equation as Stephen noted. >> >> Regards, >> Adrien > > That's the "fun" side of accounting. So many ways to do the same > thing. Only your CPA knows for sure how you should do it -- and that's > because it will be how s/he wants it done. > >> >>> On Aug 6, 2018, at 4:20 PM, Stephen M. Butler <kg...@arrl.net> wrote: >>> >>> On 08/06/2018 01:59 PM, Baldero Mendoza wrote: >>>> Please be patient with me - brand new to this. >>>> >>>> Household financial stuff. I want to post a "google play" purchase. >>>> Should I post as an expense or a liability? >>>> >>>> I have accounts open for things like "electricity" and that seems to >>>> work just fine, but "google play" looks like it works sort of like a >>>> credit card, so I listed it under "liabilities", and that seems to >>>> work too. I made the connected account "checking" and it all seems to >>>> balance and work. >>>> >>>> However, what bothers me is that the "google play" entry under >>>> "liabilities" is listed as a red negative number. So I have two red >>>> negative numbers listed now, one under "liabilities" and one under >>>> "google play". Everything balances, so is it okay or should I place >>>> "google play" purchases as "expenses"? (I just started gnucash so >>>> there aren't any credit card or debit card purchases yet.) The >>>> "expenses" stuff gets listed as black positive numbers even though >>>> they're an outflow of money just like the "google play" stuff under >>>> "liabilities". Maybe it's optional and can be done either way? >>>> Confusing. >>>> >>>> Thank you everybody! >>>> _______________________________________________ >>> All of us were brand new at one point. I'm not much past that stage >>> either. >>> >>> I'm not a CPA nor a book-keeper (though am married to an accountant and >>> have written accounting software), so this is just my opinion. >>> >>> 1. I would make an expense category for "Software" rather than tying it >>> to "Google Play" -- but that's just my approach. Would make it an >>> expense though. >>> >>> 2. The Google Play items (at least some of mine) get charged off to >>> your credit card. That would be a Liability account (short-term). >>> >>> 3. So, the two sides for the transaction (purchase) would be the >>> expense (Software or Google Play) and CreditCardClearingAccount (Liability). >>> >>> 4. When you pay off the credit card, the transaction would be the >>> CreditCardClearingAccount (to reduce toward zero) and the Checking >>> Account (Asset) from which the payment was made. >>> >>> Hope this helps clarify your thinking. >>> -- >>> Stephen M Butler, PMP, PSM >>> stephen.m.butle...@gmail.com >>> kg...@arrl.net >>> 253-350-0166 >>> ------------------------------------------- >>> GnuPG Fingerprint: 8A25 9726 D439 758D D846 E5D4 282A 5477 0385 81D8 > _______________________________________________ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. > ----- > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.