Re: [GNC] Customer Invoice Ledger Entries (Debits & Credits) for Freelancers?
It's NOT just "freelancers". It's the more general problem of invoicing only supported for when on accrual basis, not for when on cash basis. I have been keeping books for non-profits and these are usually cash basis. On the other hand, some individuals are required to use accrual basis. So the issue is (for you) how hard to make the annual or quarterly adjustments (depends on how you file tax). I don't know what YOUR "line items" might be, but if you are a freelancers providing a service, the income side adjustments might not be hard at all. And you are in a position not to have "pending" expenses at end of year/quarter. Michael D Novack ps -- producing the report with various accounts excluded not hard at all. Your extra work is entering twice for each invoice when posted received or paid (the second transaction moving from "pending" to "paid"in income and expenses. On 6/17/2021 7:07 PM, GrantSRobertson wrote: When entering a customer invoice, it appears that the only balancing accounts (the non-Accounts-Receivable accounts) GnuCash will allow one to choose from are income accounts and certain, non-special, liability accounts. Normally, this would be just fine for a business accounting system because businesses accrue their income when it is earned. However, individuals (such as freelancers) accrue their income only after it is paid. Therefore, if I am not paid for months (it happens), then all my tax calculations will be off because I will be paying taxes on income earned (the business way) instead of only on income paid (the individual's way). If I had complete control, I would assign an Equity:Pending_Income account as the balancing account, to show that I had "equity" but not income, up until the time I actually get paid. Then, after I get paid, I would manually transfer that money from that special Equity:Pending_Income account to an appropriate income account. I recognize that when applying a payment to a customer invoice, the only ledger entries made are the transfer from the Assets:Accounts-Receivable account to the Assets:Whatever_Banking_Account account. So, any other transfers/ledger-entries would need to be made by hand. However, because the above is not possible, I am looking for other alternatives. My first thought is to simply introduce another level to the income accounts hierarchy. Something like: Income:Pending Income:Paid (placeholder) : I would still have to manually create a separate ledger entry to transfer money from the Income:Pending account to the actual income account it belongs in. And, I would then have to figure out how to generate reports that ONLY reported income from under the Income:Paid placeholder parent account. Would that be too very difficult? Or would I just be creating an ever-increasing amount of compounding complexity to my accounting workflow? In the end, it seems GnuCash is not really designed for freelancers yet. All assumptions are that one is operating as a business with paid employees. It seems to me, to achieve the most flexibility, GnuCash should allow users to custom configure the behavior of the invoice and payment features, to allow us to automatically do whatever transfers and ledger entries we see fit to achieve the intended goal. -- Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html ___ 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. -- There is no possibility of social justice on a dead planet except the equality of the grave. ___ 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.
Re: [GNC] Customer Invoice Ledger Entries (Debits & Credits) for Freelancers?
See https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=95700 -derek On Thu, June 17, 2021 7:07 pm, GrantSRobertson wrote: > When entering a customer invoice, it appears that the only balancing > accounts > (the non-Accounts-Receivable accounts) GnuCash will allow one to choose > from > are income accounts and certain, non-special, liability accounts. > Normally, > this would be just fine for a business accounting system because > businesses > accrue their income when it is earned. However, individuals (such as > freelancers) accrue their income only after it is paid. Therefore, if I am > not paid for months (it happens), then all my tax calculations will be off > because I will be paying taxes on income earned (the business way) instead > of only on income paid (the individual's way). > > If I had complete control, I would assign an Equity:Pending_Income account > as the balancing account, to show that I had "equity" but not income, up > until the time I actually get paid. Then, after I get paid, I would > manually > transfer that money from that special Equity:Pending_Income account to an > appropriate income account. I recognize that when applying a payment to a > customer invoice, the only ledger entries made are the transfer from the > Assets:Accounts-Receivable account to the Assets:Whatever_Banking_Account > account. So, any other transfers/ledger-entries would need to be made by > hand. > > However, because the above is not possible, I am looking for other > alternatives. > > My first thought is to simply introduce another level to the income > accounts > hierarchy. Something like: > > Income:Pending > Income:Paid (placeholder) > : > > I would still have to manually create a separate ledger entry to transfer > money from the Income:Pending account to the actual income account it > belongs in. > > And, I would then have to figure out how to generate reports that ONLY > reported income from under the Income:Paid placeholder parent account. > Would > that be too very difficult? Or would I just be creating an ever-increasing > amount of compounding complexity to my accounting workflow? > > In the end, it seems GnuCash is not really designed for freelancers yet. > All > assumptions are that one is operating as a business with paid employees. > It > seems to me, to achieve the most flexibility, GnuCash should allow users > to > custom configure the behavior of the invoice and payment features, to > allow > us to automatically do whatever transfers and ledger entries we see fit to > achieve the intended goal. > > > > -- > Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html > ___ > 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. > -- Derek Atkins 617-623-3745 de...@ihtfp.com www.ihtfp.com Computer and Internet Security Consultant ___ 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.
Re: [GNC] Customer Invoice Ledger Entries (Debits & Credits) for Freelancers?
More formally, GnuCash seems to account using accrual basis, while an individual tends to account using cash basis? On Thu, Jun 17, 2021 at 4:09 PM GrantSRobertson wrote: > When entering a customer invoice, it appears that the only balancing > accounts > (the non-Accounts-Receivable accounts) GnuCash will allow one to choose > from > are income accounts and certain, non-special, liability accounts. > Normally, > this would be just fine for a business accounting system because businesses > accrue their income when it is earned. However, individuals (such as > freelancers) accrue their income only after it is paid. Therefore, if I am > not paid for months (it happens), then all my tax calculations will be off > because I will be paying taxes on income earned (the business way) instead > of only on income paid (the individual's way). > > If I had complete control, I would assign an Equity:Pending_Income account > as the balancing account, to show that I had "equity" but not income, up > until the time I actually get paid. Then, after I get paid, I would > manually > transfer that money from that special Equity:Pending_Income account to an > appropriate income account. I recognize that when applying a payment to a > customer invoice, the only ledger entries made are the transfer from the > Assets:Accounts-Receivable account to the Assets:Whatever_Banking_Account > account. So, any other transfers/ledger-entries would need to be made by > hand. > > However, because the above is not possible, I am looking for other > alternatives. > > My first thought is to simply introduce another level to the income > accounts > hierarchy. Something like: > > Income:Pending > Income:Paid (placeholder) > : > > I would still have to manually create a separate ledger entry to transfer > money from the Income:Pending account to the actual income account it > belongs in. > > And, I would then have to figure out how to generate reports that ONLY > reported income from under the Income:Paid placeholder parent account. > Would > that be too very difficult? Or would I just be creating an ever-increasing > amount of compounding complexity to my accounting workflow? > > In the end, it seems GnuCash is not really designed for freelancers yet. > All > assumptions are that one is operating as a business with paid employees. It > seems to me, to achieve the most flexibility, GnuCash should allow users to > custom configure the behavior of the invoice and payment features, to allow > us to automatically do whatever transfers and ledger entries we see fit to > achieve the intended goal. > > > > -- > Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html > ___ > 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. > -- Clint (JOATMON) Chaplin ___ 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.
[GNC] Customer Invoice Ledger Entries (Debits & Credits) for Freelancers?
When entering a customer invoice, it appears that the only balancing accounts (the non-Accounts-Receivable accounts) GnuCash will allow one to choose from are income accounts and certain, non-special, liability accounts. Normally, this would be just fine for a business accounting system because businesses accrue their income when it is earned. However, individuals (such as freelancers) accrue their income only after it is paid. Therefore, if I am not paid for months (it happens), then all my tax calculations will be off because I will be paying taxes on income earned (the business way) instead of only on income paid (the individual's way). If I had complete control, I would assign an Equity:Pending_Income account as the balancing account, to show that I had "equity" but not income, up until the time I actually get paid. Then, after I get paid, I would manually transfer that money from that special Equity:Pending_Income account to an appropriate income account. I recognize that when applying a payment to a customer invoice, the only ledger entries made are the transfer from the Assets:Accounts-Receivable account to the Assets:Whatever_Banking_Account account. So, any other transfers/ledger-entries would need to be made by hand. However, because the above is not possible, I am looking for other alternatives. My first thought is to simply introduce another level to the income accounts hierarchy. Something like: Income:Pending Income:Paid (placeholder) : I would still have to manually create a separate ledger entry to transfer money from the Income:Pending account to the actual income account it belongs in. And, I would then have to figure out how to generate reports that ONLY reported income from under the Income:Paid placeholder parent account. Would that be too very difficult? Or would I just be creating an ever-increasing amount of compounding complexity to my accounting workflow? In the end, it seems GnuCash is not really designed for freelancers yet. All assumptions are that one is operating as a business with paid employees. It seems to me, to achieve the most flexibility, GnuCash should allow users to custom configure the behavior of the invoice and payment features, to allow us to automatically do whatever transfers and ledger entries we see fit to achieve the intended goal. -- Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html ___ 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.
