How to account for a partial reimbursement
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troy.w...@bluebill.net
May 9, 2019, 1:51:57 PM5/9/19
to Beancount
I went to the dentist last month for a root canal and had to pay out of pocket for the costs and I was reimbursed later on, but not the full amount of the cost. I have an account, Expenses:Medical:Dental, which I usually charge against. The idea behind this account is that at the end of the year it should tell me my out of pocket expenses which I can claim on my income taxes.
Here is what I did to track the transactions:
; inital transactions at the dentist - full amount on credit card
2019-04-12 * "Dentist" "Root Canal"
Expenses:Medical:Dental 1500.00 CAD ; I was billed this amount by the dentist
Liabilities:CreditCard
Expenses:Medical:Dental 1500.00 CAD ; I was billed this amount by the dentist
Liabilities:CreditCard
; reimbursement from insurance
2019-04-16 * "Insurance" "Medical Expense reimbursement for Root Canal"
Income:Company:Medical -1000.00 CAD ; This is what I was reimbursed
Assets:Chequing
2019-04-16 * "Insurance" "Medical Expense reimbursement for Root Canal"
Income:Company:Medical -1000.00 CAD ; This is what I was reimbursed
Assets:Chequing
; apply reimbursement to credit card
2019-04-19 * "Credit Card" "Medical Expense reimbursement for Root Canal"
Liabilities:CreditCard 1000.00 CAD
Assets:Chequing
2019-04-19 * "Credit Card" "Medical Expense reimbursement for Root Canal"
Liabilities:CreditCard 1000.00 CAD
Assets:Chequing
; apply the reimbursement amount to the Expenses:Medical:Dental so that it accurately tracks unimbursed costs
2019-04-19 * "Dentist" "Root Canal"
Income:Other:PartialReimburse 1000.00 CAD
Expenses:Medical:Dental
2019-04-19 * "Dentist" "Root Canal"
Income:Other:PartialReimburse 1000.00 CAD
Expenses:Medical:Dental
I am not sure that it is done correctly, but when I check the balanes of the Expenses:Medical:Dental account it is correct. Any advice would be great.
Daniel Clemente
May 9, 2019, 3:38:56 PM5/9/19
to bean...@googlegroups.com
In your example, from the 1500 CAD only 500 CAD are from your money, so that's the only expense (and I guess it's the only part you can deduct when filing taxes). The other 1000 CAD are like a loan you're making to your insurance (you're lending them money to pay the bill and you later recover it).
In the moment you did the transaction, maybe you didn't know which part would be expense and which part reimbursable, but after you know it, you can go back and edit that transaction.
I would write something like this (I'm ignoring the part of the credit card, I'm assuming that you pay and are reimbursed by bank transfer. You can expand on it to include it):
2019-04-12 * "Dentist" "Root Canal"
Expenses:Medical:Dental 500.00 CAD ; effectively paid
Liabilites:Medical:PartialReimburse +1000 CAD ; later reimbursed
Assets:Bank -1500 CAD ; I was billed this amount by the dentist
2019-04-13 * "Insurance pays back"
Liabilites:Medical:PartialReimburse
Assets:Bank +1000 CAD
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troy.w...@bluebill.net
May 9, 2019, 9:18:17 PM5/9/19
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Thank you Daniel. That is what I was looking for!
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John Mee
May 9, 2019, 11:05:07 PM5/9/19
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I'd shy away from editing the old transaction as it discards the timeline and doesn't reflect reality. You have transactions on your CC that your accounts don't correctly reflect! In this instance it was only a few days, but sometimes these things take weeks, or months, for the cycle to be completed. It's a slippery slope.
I thought what you did looks great, excepting that for the final/4th entry. My solution would be to book the second transaction directly against expenses, and forgo the 4th entry but, if I have your problem understood, you want a report on reimbursements. Your mileage may vary but, rather than creating a special account and virtual transactions, I start tagging things like that, and run reports against the tags. eg:
Expenses:Medical:Dental 1000.00 CAD
Assets:Chequing
John Mee
May 9, 2019, 11:09:40 PM5/9/19
to Beancount
...doh, sorry for the noise, that should probably be around the other way... fiddle until it is right. I just wanted to suggest tagging as the solution.
2019-04-16 * "Insurance" "Medical Expense reimbursement for Root Canal" #reimbursment #<insurer-name>
Assets:Chequing 1000.00 CAD
Expenses:Medical:Dental
Martin Blais
May 10, 2019, 12:41:59 AM5/10/19
to Beancount
There's a lot to say and it's an involved topic (especially with in-network and out-of-network differences), I can't do it right now (I'll write a doc at some point, I started writing something here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16RKEl1NJ3qg8VU9vKRRvgIv3CyGs0_4ASS4lD5iBFTw/edit?usp=sharing but it's not quite finished yet, needs review), but one quick thing I'd mention is you should use a links to tie together these transactions, so you can use the "bean-doctor linked ..." to view them together.
Something like this provides some ideas (for a US context with private insurance):
;;; accounting/blais.beancount:49452:
;;;
;;; 2015-10-01 * "KLEIN" "Cleaning, X-ray, Oral evaluation. Issued: 2015-10-10" #out-network ^delta-dental-claim-2015123456789
;;; Expenses:Health:Dental:Claims 440.00 USD
;;; Expenses:Health:Dental:ClaimsPayment -301.00 USD
;;; Liabilities:AccountsPayable:Klein -49.00 USD
;;; Expenses:Health:Dental:WriteOffs -90.00 USD
;;;
;;;
;;; accounting/blais.beancount:25387:
;;;
;;; 2015-10-19 * "Klein Dentists" "KLEIN DDS" ^delta-dental-claim-2015123456789
;;; note: "Paid $350 right away, will wait for insurance check later."
;;; Liabilities:US:BofA:GoldCard -350.00 USD
;;; Liabilities:AccountsPayable:Klein 49.00 USD
;;; Assets:AccountsReceivable 301.00 USD
;;;
;;;
;;; accounting/blais.beancount:17070:
;;;
;;; 2015-11-04 * "ATM CHECK DEPOSIT" ^delta-dental-claim-2015123456789
;;; Assets:US:BofA:Checking 301.00 USD
;;; Assets:AccountsReceivable -301.00 USD
;;;
;;;
;;; |-- Assets
;;; | |-- AccountsReceivable
;;; | `-- US
;;; | `-- BofA
;;; | `-- Checking 301.00 USD
;;; |-- Expenses
;;; | `-- Health
;;; | `-- Dental
;;; | |-- Claims 440.00 USD
;;; | |-- ClaimsPayment -301.00 USD
;;; | `-- WriteOffs -90.00 USD
;;; `-- Liabilities
;;; |-- AccountsPayable
;;; | `-- Klein
;;; `-- US
;;; `-- BofA
;;; `-- GoldCard -350.00 USD
;;;
;;; Net Income: (-49.00 USD)
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troy.w...@bluebill.net
May 10, 2019, 11:39:26 AM5/10/19
to Beancount
Martin, thank you for responding! Your examples are quite helpful. I will examine them further to be sure I understand what is happen. I would really like to mirror the transactions as I would find them on my account statements. I wasn't sure if I was using the accounts correctly.
I think the example you give from a US context with private insurance is similar in some ways to the Canadian perspective of employer dental benefits and medications. In my case, I have quite a few of them over a year.
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