Louise, The invoice and bills Business Features in GnuCash are setup specifically for monitoring payables (what you owe) and receivable (what is owed to you). They work using two special accounts, a Liability account "Accounts Payable " and an asset account "Accounts Receivable". AFAIK they are enabled by default in GnuCash.
You could use these, particularly the Accounts Payable to manage your bills but it comes with a bit more complexity in recording and some overhead in learning how to use the features. When you receive a bill froma vendor, you can enter it in GnuCash with the menu item BUsiness->Vendor->New Bill. This will allow you to enter the due date for the bill along with the amount but you will also have to create a vendor entry for the vendor who created the bill. When you enter the bill it creates a credit entry in the Accounts Payable account for the amount of the bill with a corresponding second debit entry to the expense account associated with the bill. you can make a payment which is then associated to the specific bill using the Business->Vendor->Process Payment menu item for the amount you have paid on the bill. It will create an entry which credits your check account and debits the Accounts Payable by the amount you have paid. You can find the documentation on these features here https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v5/C/gnucash-manual/chapter_busnss.html. You likely won't need all of tbusiness features but the sections on Bills processing will be relevant. Under the Reports->Business the Payables Ageing and Vendor Reports will help in identifying unpaid or partially paid bills David Cousens On Sat, 2025-03-15 at 15:09 -0600, griffin wrote: > I think I'm starting to mess up my accounts. > > I use GnuCash for my home accounts. I know little/nothing about > accounting practices, no-one will see my accounts, and they won't be > audited. > > So far I have been paying bills by entering a transaction in the > check > register for the amount of the payment, and then using an expense > account as the second account, Electricity for example. > > Chequing Register > Date Description Transfer > > R Deposit Withdrawal Balance > 2025-02-02 PAY Electric & Gas - Direct Energy > Expenses~CAD~House~Utilities~Direct Energy N 60.00 > > 138.96 > > Electric Expense Register > Date Description Transfer > > R Expense Rebate Balance > 2025-02-02 PAY Electric & Gas - Direct Energy > Assets~CAD~ScotiaBank~Checking N 60.00 > > 157.39 > > However, I am at a point in my life where I cannot always pay my > bills > in full, so I need to have a "balance owing" situation. I would also > need to have a record of the value of the Electric bill. That is, I > had > an expense of $120 for the electric bill, but having paid $60, I > still > owe $60. > > Can I set things up as I am using GnuCashnow, so that after I've paid > what I can there is still a debt showing, or do I have to change > things > and use liability accounts. If so, what would the process look like? > Would it be like treating the electric bill as it were a credit card? > How would I set that up? > > Thanks. > > -- > Louise (Louise/Louise's) > If you need end-to-end encryption, I have a PGP Key > > _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
