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Doug
I don't see how that is a problem. Gnucash is a double entry accounting
system. The main problem is the discrepancy in timing between when rent
is due and is recorded as income and when the actual payment is
received. One way to handle it could be to create a dummy account under
iIncome called something like Rent Due to which the entry is made at
the date the rent is due and when the payment is actually mad made
include an additional entry to transfer from Income:Rent Due to
Income:Rental Income at the date of payment. You would never report
the income :RentDue to the tax man, it is only for your tracking and to
ensure that your income is recorded for tax purposes at the date it was
paid if your accounting basis with the ATO is on a cash basis. It does
means you have to create a 4 split entry when the payment is received
rather than the usual two split debiting your bank account and
crediting the Asset: Rents Receivable ( or whatever you happen to call
it). Like the asset account for the rents receivable the Income:
rents Due account will have a zero balance if everyone is up to date on
the rent.
On Thu, 2025-03-20 at 11:19 +1100, Doug wrote:
> On Thu, 20 Mar 2025 09:45:18 +1000
> David Cousens <davidcousen...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> David, thanks. My only issue is that my ´income´ is actually the
> monies
> received from the tenant. The ´rent due´ is only for tracking what is
> owed.
> The problem I find is I cannot use the amount twice: rental income &
> rental tracking.. Not sure how to resolve that? but thinking: perhaps
> at tax time I can subtract the yearly balance from ´rents due´ from
> my
> (rental) income to arrive at yearly (rental) income?
> Once I arrive at a workable solution I can write something up for
> the
> Wiki. (but will need someone to add to it, or check it for accounting
> accuracy).
>
> Thx Doug
>
> > Then you would create asset accounts (an equivalent to the accounts
> > payable in business features) for rent owed. Again you could use
> > sub-
> > accounts for each property to a fine a scale as needed.
> >
> > When the rent is due on a property you create an entry with a debit
> > to
> > the appropriate Asset:Rent Owed sub account and an credit entry to
> > the
> > Income account (if it proved useful you could have a sub account
> > structure on the income as well). When a renter makes a payment you
> > credit the appropriate Asset:Rent Owed sub account and debit your
> > bank
> > account. The balances in the Asset Rent Owed and its sub accounts
> > give
> > you the position re what is owed and by whom. Zero balances in the
> > appropriate RentOwed sub account indicate payments are up to date,
> > a
> > debit balance that you are owed money and a credit balance that the
> > renter is in credit.
> >
> > Appropriate searcheable tags in the description memo field can also
> > be
> > used to differentiate different properties if you don't want to
> > setup
> > sub accounts for example. The starting point is to define exactly
> > what
> > it is you need for management purposes and then work back to the
> > appropriate combnation of tags and sub-accounts which will meet
> > those
> > specific needs.
> >
> > The flexibility of the transaction report can usually allow you to
> > generate the reports you may require not covered by the standard
> > reports
> >
> > Whether your accounting is on a cash or accrual basis relates more
> > to
> > the timing of recording the various entries. If you are strictyl
> > cash
> > accounting then the entry recording income would be made on the
> > date of
> > receipt of a payment or partial payment for example.
> >
> >
> > The issue of club memberships has been covered many times in the
> > mailing list but approaches can be similar to the above.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Thu, 2025-03-20 at 07:57 +1100, Doug via gnucash-user wrote:
> > > The only issue with this tracking for business use is that some
> > > can
> > > be income
> > > related. I have an issue tracking rental property income: I need
> > > to
> > > work
> > > out a way of only having rent payment as income (cash accrual),
> > > but
> > > being
> > > able to generate reports that track rental payments with the
> > > property
> > > rent
> > > required, so I can track rent arrears. There is also a need to
> > > track
> > > any
> > > payments a renter might need to re-imburse.
> > > I looked at using the invoicing system, but it was a step too
> > > far I
> > > felt,
> > > as well as not melding with my cash accrual accounting. This
> > > requirement
> > > also applies to clubs, etc that need to track memberships, etc.
> > > Can anyone suggest a cash accrual method for tracking these
> > > payments? I
> > > have been looking for a system for years!
> > >
> > > regards, Doug in Australia, long time Gnucash user but no expert!
> > > &
> > > thanks
> > > to Gnucash developers for commitment.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Thu, 20 Mar 2025 06:24:31 +1000
> > > David Cousens <davidcousen...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > You can always make the tracking of bills as fine scale as you
> > > > need
> > > > by
> > > > creating a specific sub account strucure to the liability
> > > > account
> > > > e.g
> > > > Liability-Utilities- Electricity
> > > > -Water
> > > > -Internet
> > > > -Loans -House
> > > > -Car
> > > > etc.
> > > >
> > > > Then the liability subaccount with a non-zero balance contains
> > > > unpaid
> > > > bills (or overpaid) depending on whether it is a credit balance
> > > > or
> > > > debit balance.
> > > >
> > > > The advantage of the business features with invoices and bills
> > > > is
> > > > that
> > > > the payments are linked specifically to the bill or invoice
> > > > they
> > > > relate
> > > > to so it is possible to search for unpaid invoices.
> > > >
> > > > You could always use tags in the memo, description fields to
> > > > create
> > > > this just using ordinary Liability accounts.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On Thu, 2025-03-20 at 06:30 +1100, flywire wrote:
> > > > > On Wed Mar 19 10:07:19 EDT 2025 griffin wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > The transactions are working the way they are supposed to,
> > > > > > so
> > > > > > thank
> > > > > > you everyone who contributed to this topic.
> > > > >
> > > > > So how do you propose actually tracking unpaid bills?
> > > > > Recording a
> > > > > transaction doesn't do it. It would normally involve specific
> > > > > reports
> > > > > run
> > > > > frequently enough to manage payments due.
> > > > >
> > > > > Regards
> > > > >
> > > > > >
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