Unable to offset certain expenses

1

could someone please confirm if my accounts are correct?

  1. my home loan shows the amounts of principal, interest, and bank fees all separate.
    on my bank account, i import transactions and the complete principal amount is deducted. i categorize this amount to liabilities and then manually transfer through a journal entry the interest amount to expenses-interest.

  2. on my personal account, i purchased a product for myself but was refunded the full amount many months later. i cant offset the amount to expenses because i don’t want to setup imported transactions that happened almost a year ago. instead i created assets:refunds received.

am i on the right track?
thanks

2

  1. When you import a bank statement that includes a mortgage payment, edit it before doing the Bulk Update. Add another line item and split the payment to principal and interest. That way, you avoid the journal entry.

  2. This sounds far too complex. Presumably, you allocated the original payment to some expense account. For the refund, enter a receipt and post it to the same expense account. This will reduce the balance of that expense account. No asset account should ever be involved except your bank account cash account. You could, however, post the refund to an income account. I don’t understand your concern over importing transactions that happened a year ago. The transaction you are recording is current: the refund you just received. It is a separate transaction from the purchase that happened a year ago.

3

  1. i am unable to do a split transaction because the amount the bank deducts does not include the interest. i am charged different interest amounts on different dates. that’s why i was hoping the way i am currently doing it is fine.

  2. i haven’t allocated my purchase to a expense because i don’t have those bank transactions that happened forever ago. i imported 3 months of bank transactions and now i have refund that i cant offset because i don’t have that original expense that i should have.

4

  1. If the bank makes separate charges on separate dates, you will need separate transactions in Manager. If you are saying the bank only reports the single payment, but later deducts interest without an additional charge, you can either use the journal entry or edit the original payment transaction. (After all, that seems to be what the bank is doing.)

  2. You missed my point. You do not need to offset this refund against a particular, old transaction. It is a current transaction. In effect, you sold the item back to the merchant. Different day, different transaction. If you are concerned because the original purchase was completed before you started using Manager, that does not matter. Lots of transactions in your personal life were made before you started using Manager. If it is important to you to accurately reflect your current financial position, you should set starting balances. See Enter starting balances | Manager. Personally, I see no purpose in trying to manage personal finances with any accounting program like Manager for this very reason. By the time anyone becomes interested in tracking their financial performance, too much has already happened. A business, on the other hand, has a beginning date and should have the necessary records to migrate to a new accounting system at any time.