Credit card accounts

What this does

Banking → CC Accounts lists the shop's credit cards. A card is an account like a checking account, except its GL account is a liability (2100–2199 range) and its balance is what you owe. Charges increase it; payments and credits reduce it.

Before you start

accounting.manage. Add the checking account first; a card payment is posted from the checking side against the card's GL account, so the card needs a funding account to be paid from.

Steps

Add Credit Card. Account Name (e.g. Shop Visa), Issuer (e.g. Chase, Amex), Card Number (last 4 digits), and Opening Balance, which for a card means the amount owed on the day you add it. Enter a positive number for a balance you owe.

The last four digits are how forwarded card alerts (an Apple Card transaction notice, say) find this account. Leave them blank and alerts for the card can't route.

Edit Credit Card changes the name, issuer, digits, and Active. Deactivate a cancelled card; its history stays.

What happens in the books

Adding the card creates the liability account and, for a non-zero opening balance, posts Dr Opening Balance Equity / Cr the card. From then on:

• A charge (from Money Out → Credit Cards, an approved inbox item, or an import) posts Dr the expense / Cr the card.
• A payment from checking posts Dr the card / Cr checking, when the checking-side transaction is categorized to the card's GL account.
• A credit or refund from the card issuer posts Dr the card / Cr the expense it reverses.

The Banking Overview subtracts card balances from cash to show what you actually have.

Common problems

The card's balance is off by exactly one payment. The payment was categorized to an expense instead of the card's GL account. Open the checking register, find the payment, and edit its category to the card account.

I see a second list of credit cards with different balances. An older card screen reads a table the ledger doesn't post to. The list under Banking → CC Accounts and the registers reached from the Banking Overview are the ones that agree with the books.