The account transaction history has several categories and I'm not sure what they mean?

[eepers]

I'm currently trying to add up how much money I've spent and I'm not sure how to interpret the different categories. There's...

• Starting balance
• Recurring mainland fees
• Balance adjustment
• L$ Quick buy
• Value added tax
• Ending balance

Do I just add up each number from each category and that's how much I've spent? Balance adjustment is in brackets, so do I ignore that? Thanks!

[Rolig Loon]

These are pretty standard accounting terms.  So,

starting balance is the amount of L$ that you had before the transaction happened,

ending balance is the amount of L$ that you have after the transaction,

recurring mainland fees are the land fees that you are paying each month for your parcel,

balance adjustment is a correction for an error somewhere (LL often uses that category if they need to recover stolen L$, for example),

L$ Quick Buy it the amount of L$ that you received for buying L$ on the LindeX at the Market rate

Value Added Tax (VAT) is the tax that you pay to your local government if you happen to live in a place where that it relevant (like Europe)

[eepers]

14 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

These are pretty standard accounting terms.  So,

starting balance is the amount of L$ that you had before the transaction happened,

ending balance is the amount of L$ that you have after the transaction,

recurring mainland fees are the land fees that you are paying each month for your parcel,

balance adjustment is a correction for an error somewhere (LL often uses that category if they need to recover stolen L$, for example),

L$ Quick Buy it the amount of L$ that you received for buying L$ on the LindeX at the Market rate

Value Added Tax (VAT) is the tax that you pay to your local government if you happen to live in a place where that it relevant (like Europe)

Ah, thank you so much! It says (USD) above those terms, though, so do you mean $ instead of L$? And also, does that mean the balance adjustment is money I successfully spent, or is it money that was returned because it didn't go through? Sorry for all the questions!

[Rolig Loon]

Again, standard accounting terms.  An adjustment in brackets is a negative adjustment.  And yes, if it says USD, it's in dollars, not L$.  If you want to know how much you spent, subtract the ending balance from the starting balance.  If you want to have details, look at all the other entries.

[eepers]

Just now, Rolig Loon said:

Again, standard accounting terms.  An adjustment in brackets is a negative adjustment.  And yes, if it says USD, it's in dollars, not L$.  If you want to know how much you spent, subtract the ending balance from the starting balance.  If you want to have details, look at all the other entries.

Sorry, accounting stuff is overwhelming to me. The starting/ending balance was always 0 (regardless of how much activity there was) so I wasn't sure what to make of them. Thanks a bunch!

[LittleMe Jewell]

On 1/7/2019 at 11:12 AM, eepers said:

On 1/7/2019 at 11:11 AM, Rolig Loon said:

If you want to know how much you spent, subtract the ending balance from the starting balance. 

The starting/ending balance was always 0 (regardless of how much activity there was)

The 'subtract ending from starting' will only work if you are actually carrying a US $ balance on your account -- have both a starting US $ balance and and ending US $ balance - and not always even in that case.

If you don't have a US $ balance at the beginning of the month and you end up having tier due - say US $15 - then LL will take that amount from your payment method.  You 'starting' and 'ending' balances would still be US $0 though because you didn't start with a US $ balance and LL did not leave you with one. So in that case, what you spent during the month would need to be determined by looking at the other values.

However, let's say you sold some L$ sometime in Dec that resulted in US $25 and you left that money on your account.  Then your 'starting balance' for Jan is that $25 amount.  If you then had some tier due during them month - say US $15 - then LL would take the $15 out of your account balance and the resulting $10 would be your 'ending balance'.  In this case, you can subtract the $10 ending balance from the $25 starting balance and properly get the $15 that was spent for tier that month.

To continue the scenario, for Feb, your starting balance is US $10.  If you again owed $15 for tier, they would take the $10 that is sitting on your account and another $5 from your payment method, resulting in an ending balance of $0.  Now, again, since starting and/or ending balance is $0, you cannot determine what you spent just by looking at those two numbers.

Now after LL took their $15, leaving you with a $0 balance, even if you again sold some L$ and that resulted in $30 as your account balance, you still cannot tell what you spent just by looking at the $10 starting balance and the $30 ending balance.

 

Side note - the 'balance adjustment' is also the term they use when they adjust for money they took from your payment method. Here is what mine looked like the last time my Premium membership was due for renewal.  I didn't start out with any US $ balance; they billed me for my membership, and then adjusted for the money they took directly from my payment method.

 

[eepers]

9 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

The 'subtract ending from starting' will only work if you are actually carrying a US $ balance on your account -- have both a starting US $ balance and and ending US $ balance - and not always even in that case.

If you don't have a US $ balance at the beginning of the month and you end up having tier due - say US $15 - then LL will take that amount from your payment method.  You 'starting' and 'ending' balances would still be US $0 though because you didn't start with a US $ balance and LL did not leave you with one. So in that case, what you spent during the month would need to be determined by looking at the other values.

However, let's say you sold some L$ sometime in Dec that resulted in US $25 and you left that money on your account.  Then your 'starting balance' for Jan is that $25 amount.  If you then had some tier due during them month - say US $15 - then LL would take the $15 out of your account balance and the resulting $10 would be your 'ending balance'.  In this case, you can subtract the $10 ending balance from the $25 starting balance and properly get the $15 that was spent for tier that month.

To continue the scenario, for Feb, your starting balance is US $10.  If you again owed $15 for tier, they would take the $10 that is sitting on your account and another $5 from your payment method, resulting in an ending balance of $0.  Now, again, since starting and/or ending balance is $0, you cannot determine what you spent just by looking at those two numbers.

Now after LL took their $15, leaving you with a $0 balance, even if you again sold some L$ and that resulted in $30 as your account balance, you still cannot tell what you spent just by looking at the $10 starting balance and the $30 ending balance.

 

Side note - the 'balance adjustment' is also the term they use when they adjust for money they took from your payment method. Here is what mine looked like the last time my Premium membership was due for renewal.  I didn't start out with any US $ balance; they billed me for my membership, and then adjusted for the money they took directly from my payment method.

 

Ah thanks so much, that's super helpful!