Re: [SL] Gift Vouchers

[Tony F. <to...@sy...>]

On Fri, 2007-04-20 at 10:30 +1000, George Osvald wrote:
> On Friday 20 April 2007, Roy Nicholl wrote:
> > I agree that there is no 'sale' until a voucher is redeemed (which,
> > from a business standpoint is hopefully never).  However, vouchers,
> > coupons, options, etc. are liabilities against the business (this is
> > why they usually come with expiration dates) and should be recorded
> > as such.
> 
> So could they be treated as orders then? When a customer purchases a product 
> and redeems a voucher I could make an invoice out of the order. I could also 
> use the order number to track them. It would not be too hard to customize the 
> order template to print different heading for gift voucher receipts.

Here's what I would do:

Create a liability account in you CoA "Outstanding Vouchers" and mark it
AR_paid and IC_income.

Create a service called "voucher" with the sell price set to te face
value of the voucher and income account set to "Outstanding
Vouchers" (the IC_income link should make it show up in the list of
"Income" accounts even though it is actually a liability account.) and
uncheck any sales taxes.

If a customer buys a voucher make a sales invoice for a voucher and
accept payment however you want.

If you give away a/some voucher(s) make a sales invoice and pay it from
either an equity account or an expense account like "Promotions
Expense". This is definitely a question for your accountant to answer.

When a customer redeems a voucher you will be able to accept it as
payment of a regular sales invoice by choosing the "Outstanding
Vouchers" account as the payment account. It will be in the list because
of the AR_paid link.

If you want to know the amount of vouchers you have outstanding you just
have to look at the balance of the "Outstanding Vouchers" account.

If your vouchers have an expiry once they are expired you can either
debit "Outstanding Vouchers" and credit "Unused Voucher
Income" (vouchers that were bought but not used) or debit "Outstanding
Vouchers" and credit "Promotions Expense" (giveaways).

-- 
Tony Fraser
to...@sy...
Sybaspace Internet Solutions                        System Administrator
phone: (250) 246-5368                                fax: (250) 246-5398