Receiving and Paying Bills

Definitions

Vendor

Someone we owe money to, for instance a utility company.

Bill of Lading

A bill of lading is a document which is issued by a transportation carrier to us acknowledging that they have the stuff and will ship it. For example, Total Reclaim, Inc. picks up monitors and gives us a copy of a "receipt" (the bill of lading) that says they have 24 pallets of monitors containing 446 monitors. Later on, they'll write us a bill which will reference the bill of lading.

Bill

Document from a vendor showing us new money that we owe.

Statement

Document from a vendor showing us how much money that we owe -- old money and new. If we pay our bills on time, we might get no statements, or the statements won't show us owing any more money than the most recent bill does.

Receiving a Bill of Lading

In Gnucash

Do nothing.

In file cabinet

File in Bill of Lading folder.

Receiving a Bill

In Gnucash

• Open appropriate accounts payable account (match the vendor name or use Misc)
• Enter the amount into the expense field
• Transfer field should be the appropriate expense account.

In file cabinet

• If there is an associated bill of lading, match it to the bill and fasten them together.
• File in the Accounts Payable folder

Paying a Bill

• Physically write the check
• Write check number, date, and amount on bill

In Gnucash

• Open the main checking account
• Enter the date
• Enter the check number
• Enter the vendor name in description
• Enter the appropriate accounts receivable account (match the vendor name or use Misc)
• Enter the amount in the withdrawl field

In file cabinet

• File in vendor folder

Receiving a Statement

In Gnucash

Do nothing.

In file cabinet

• File in vendor folder