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Loans and the account statement

In ZeniCash, the outstanding balance of a loan does not need an account of its own. Each entity (customer, supplier, or "Other") has a current account — a statement with an accumulated balance — and that is where the loan is tracked, just as it works with customer and supplier invoices.

How to read the current account balance

The current account balance of an entity follows a single convention and is always shown in the entity's currency:

• Positive (receivable): the entity owes you money.
• Negative (payable): you owe the entity money.

Invoices, payments, advances, and loans for the same entity offset one another into a single net balance. For that reason, to track a loan in isolation, it is recommended to use a dedicated entity per borrower.

Lending to or receiving from a third party (advances)

To lend money to someone (or to record a loan they made to you), without creating any new account, use the Advances area:

1. Create an entity (for example of the "Other" type) for the borrower/lender.
2. When lending: in Advances, record an "Advance granted" (an expense). The money leaves your account and the entity's current account now shows the amount receivable.
3. When they pay you back (partial or full): record an "Advance received" (an income). The current account balance decreases, reaching zero when the loan is settled.

The outstanding amount always remains visible in the entity's current account balance. Advances do not require any special configuration on the entity.

A professional expense paid with a personal account

It is common to pay a company expense with personal money (for example, when the company account has no funds). In that case, the company ends up owing you the amount — it is a loan — but the expense is still professional and should keep its real category (for example, "Software") in reports.

For this there is the loan account: a setting made on the entity, not on each entry.

Step 1 — Prepare the entity

1. Open (or create) the "Other" type entity that represents whoever will owe you.
2. Turn on the "Loan account" switch.

After this, any movement associated with that entity is automatically treated as a loan in its current account — with no per-entry switch.

Step 2 — Record the expense

1. Record the expense as usual, with its real category (for example "Software") and select the entity prepared in step 1.
2. Save.

The form shows only a (non-editable) indication — "Record in the current account (loan)" — confirming that the movement will be recorded as a loan. There is nothing to turn on or off: the decision comes from the entity.

The result:

• The expense appears in reports with the real category ("Software"), a single time.
• The entity's current account shows the amount receivable (the company/entity ends up owing you).
• No account and no second movement are created.

When they return the amount to you, record the return as an income on the same entity: the current account balance decreases to zero.

Loan between two of your own accounts: if the money actually moves between two of your accounts (for example, personal account → company account), record a transfer to that loan entity. A direction selector appears — "Loan" (they end up owing you) or "Return" (reduces the debt).

"Record in the current account": don't confuse two cases

The app uses the phrase "Record in the current account" in two different places, which do different things:

• Loan — the non-editable indication described above. It appears when the entity has "Loan account" turned on. It records the movement as a loan, keeping the real category.
• Document — a checkbox that can be ticked, which appears when you type a document number on a movement with an entity. When ticked, it creates a document (invoice) already paid in the entity's current account; when unticked, it stores the number only as a reference, without recording anything in the current account.

They are independent features.

What is overdue

From version 1.5.0, an unpaid document whose due date has passed shows Overdue and its due date in the statement, and the list of entities shows the overdue amount of each. A document due today is not overdue yet. A document saved without a due date is due on its own date.

Deleting a payment linked to a document

When a movement created a document in the current account (the "Record in the current account" checkbox case above), deleting that movement also removes the document — the payment and the document go together. Before deleting, the app warns: "Delete payment and document?". On confirming, both are removed and the document no longer appears in the statement or in the "payable" list.

Notes

• One entity per loan: it prevents the loan from mixing with other invoices or movements of the same entity.
• Advances vs. loan account: advances use the Advances area and do not require configuring the entity; the loan account is for keeping the real category of an expense/income recorded as a debt. They are two paths for different purposes.
• Different currency: if the entity's currency differs from the currency of the paying account, the current account shows the amount in the entity's currency.