Hoping someone with better accounting knowledge than I can help me.
I just started using Manager and have loaded all my accounting transactions into it since 1/1/2017 and all looks good except for one thing.
Our organization promotes concerts and we sell tickets online in advance of the concert date. There are a couple of concerts in January 2017 which had ticket sales in 2016. Those sales are reflected in the 1/1/2017 bank account opening balance I entered into Manager but are not in the Ticket Sales Income account. However the expenses for those concerts are in Manager so the P/L report is not showing the correct net Profit/Loss
What accounts/transactions can I enter to record the 2016 ticket sales for 2017 concerts?
A P&L statement is for a defined period of time. Change the period and you’ll get different results. You also get different results based on whether you are using accrual or cash basis accounting. See this Guide: Choose between accrual or cash basis accounting | Manager.
It may be that you should have posted the 2016 sales of tickets for a 2017 concert to an Advanced ticket sales asset account, not an income account, because you haven’t earned the income until the concert occurs. But that’s only if you’re using accrual basis accounting.
“Liability” account, as it would have a credit balance from the Receive Money
Plus it would have been owing - refunded - if the concert didn’t proceed.
What caused me to think about this is that I’m using tracking codes to get a P/L for each concert and the ones for the two January concerts aren’t correct due to this. It won’t matter in future year since the advance sales will be in Manager and I’ll be able to get P/L for a concert by specifying a date range that includes all the income and expenses.
Up until now I’ve been using a spreadsheet for the concert P/L reports so I have the info for the Jan 2017 concerts so not that big a deal if Manager doesn’t have all the info it needs for them.
. . . “Pre-sold Tickets”, the revenue is not earned until the concert occurs. If the concert is cancelled then the Pre-sold Tickets are refunded - the revenue doesn’t become - unearned
The credit card company transfers money into our bank account on a weekly basis. Instead of allocating that entry to Ticket Sales, I would allocate it to the Liability account and then on the day of each concert, I would journal the sales for the concert out of the Liability account and into the Ticket Sales Income account.
How do I know how much to transfer with the Journal Entry? I can tag the bank account that allocates the sales to the liability account with Tracking codes but I don’t see a report that allows me to select a tracking code and includes bank account info.
You can create an account for each concert. After you have transferred the money to the income account, you will not be able to delete the account, but you can rename it to an upcoming concert.
My comment on using special accounts is that it is generally unwise to add accounts for individual events, because once you use them, they will be around forever. Event categories are fine, but 2017 Bongo Boys concert will be pretty annoying in the chart of accounts in five years.
@dcVest Great, that looks to be exactly what I need.
@tut I understand what you mean but I can’t find any other way of categorizing these ticket sales by concert. I don;t think TRacking codes will work because there doesn’t seem to be a report that either lets me select a tracking code or shows totals by tracking code that would include the Liability account.
Right, even the name is annoying. It would be better to just have a few accounts for which tickets are being sold and then rename an account after it has been emptied.
Activate the Special Accounts tab under Customise.
Go to Settings - Chart of Accounts and create a BS Liability account called “Pre-Sold Tickets”
a) tick Control Account and select Made up of - Special Accounts.
Go to Special Accounts tab and add accounts for each concert and under control account select “Pre-Sold Tickets”.
Now you can post and track the banking for each concert - transfer the balance as required.
As concerts pass, put a “z” in front of the account/concert name, this will send them to the bottom of the list so only current concerts are listed first.
Yes, that’s what @dcVest suggested and works perfectly. My comment was on @tut’s comment that the account names would be annoying. But thanks for the idea of adding a z to the front of past concerts to get the future ones listed first.
At just 12 concerts a year, after five years there will be 60 empty accounts. For my records, I would prefer to re-use the same accounts over and over than having so many empty accounts. I guess it comes down to individual preference.
That would work too. I’m only selling tickets for around half a dozen concerts at any one time so could just have that many accounts and change their names as you suggested.
The renaming concept is similar to what I called “event categories.” I was thinking "Spring concert, Summer concert, Holiday concert, etc. if events are repeated year to year. But Concert 1, Concert 2, Concert 3, is no different. If you change names for the accounts, just be aware that the transactions for the historical concerts will still be in there.
