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. (We don't know how much money we owe yet.)
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
Check to see if our account agrees with their statement. Note any past due amount. This is an indication that we need to prioritize paying the vendor.
In file cabinet
- File in vendor folder