Can I change the Discount account on previously paid bills?

Posted by Renny Bosch on March 17, 2009, 3:00 pm

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I had set up the Discount account for bills on which I get 2% off to
the QB default, which is an Income account. I would like to change it
to an account which is a Cost of Goods Sold account. There was no
problem setting it up like that and using it for new bills, but I
can't find a way to make the same change retroactively on previously
paid bills. It occurred to me that I might just delete each payment
and then recreate it with the new Discount account, but that seems
like a lot of work and with a high error risk.

A bit of philosophy: QB seems to adhere to the old accounting
practice that you never use subtraction, only addition, like in the
days of manual calculations. But showing a 2% discount as income
distorts the picture for me, I'd much rather see it as a decrease in
my cost. End of opinion.

Renny

Posted by Renny Bosch on March 17, 2009, 3:02 pm

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Oh, and one more thing: Happy Valentine's Day!!

Posted by Laura on March 17, 2009, 3:30 pm

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> Oh, and one more thing: Happy Valentine's Day!!

LOL! Wrong holiday!

--
Laura

Posted by Laura on March 17, 2009, 3:37 pm

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>I had set up the Discount account for bills on which I get 2% off to

> the QB default, which is an Income account. I would like to change it

> to an account which is a Cost of Goods Sold account. There was no

> problem setting it up like that and using it for new bills, but I

> can't find a way to make the same change retroactively on previously

> paid bills. It occurred to me that I might just delete each payment

> and then recreate it with the new Discount account, but that seems

> like a lot of work and with a high error risk.

> A bit of philosophy: QB seems to adhere to the old accounting

> practice that you never use subtraction, only addition, like in the

> days of manual calculations. But showing a 2% discount as income

> distorts the picture for me, I'd much rather see it as a decrease in

> my cost. End of opinion.

Are you refering to discounts for paying vendor bills early? Or giving
customers discounts? A vendor discount belongs in COGS while Customer
discounts are Income impacting.

If you have vendor discounts as Income then your QB file was setup
incorrectly.

The only way to move EVERYTHING would be to change the G/L account from
Income to COGS or to change the account on an ITEM. Either method will
impact history too. I would just edit 2009 transactions and leave your
history alone.

Posted by Renny Bosch on March 17, 2009, 4:13 pm

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> Are you refering to discounts for paying vendor bills early? Or giving

> customers discounts? A vendor discount belongs in COGS while Customer

> discounts are Income impacting.

> If you have vendor discounts as Income then your QB file was setup

> incorrectly.

> The only way to move EVERYTHING would be to change the G/L account from

> Income to COGS or to change the account on an ITEM. Either method will

> impact history too. I would just edit 2009 transactions and leave your

> history alone.

I was referring to discounts earned by paying vendors early, so
apparently my QB was set up wrong.

How can I edit 2009 transactions, without deleting and recreating?
When I click on an entry in the Discounts Earned list (from the P&L),
all I get is a copy of the check used to pay the bill and referring to
a discount date but no way to change the account involved. I tried
following the History but that only gets me back to the bill with the
discount not yet applied. There must be a secret passage somewhere to
get at the discount account used but I haven't been able to find it.

PS: Sorry for getting uncle Pat confused with uncle Valentine.