Customer Charge BacksCopy

In GnuCash, the “Default Chargeback Project” on a vendor Bill (Accounts Payable) is used to assign expenses from that bill to a specific Customer and their Job for later invoicing, allowing you to track costs for different clients, rentals, or business activities on one bill but charge them back individually on separate customer invoices.

To use it, create a Bill for your vendor, select the Customer and their specific Job (if applicable) in the Default Chargeback Project fields, mark line items as “Billable,” and then generate customer Invoices from these bills to recoup the costs.

Cheat Notes:

1. Set Up Customers & Jobs: Ensure you have Customers and Jobs (Projects) created under Business
> Customer > New Customer and Business
> Customer > New Job respectively, for each entity you’ll charge back to.
2. Create a Vendor Bill: Go to Business
> Vendor > New Bill to enter expenses from a supplier.
3. Assign Default Chargeback: In the Bill window, find the “Default Chargeback Project” section and select the specific Customer and Job/Project for that bill.
4. Mark as Billable: On the bill’s line items, check the “Billable?” column for items you intend to charge back.
5. Process the Bill: Post the bill (e.g., to Accounts Payable), which records the expense and makes it available for chargeback.
6. Create Customer Invoice: Go to Business
> Customer > New Invoice, select the Customer, and then use the “Find Bill” function or manually add the bill’s items to create an invoice for that customer, recouping the costs. 

Tip:

The “Default Chargeback Project” on a Bill links your expense to a customer/job, while the “Customer” field on an Invoice links income to that same customer/job, allowing you to manage your costs and billings effectively.