Payments and Receipts

Hi list

Learning some basics of SL.

Purchasing and selling seems OK.

But what is the simplest method to enter payments for non-purchasing costs ?

Chapter 11 of manual is not much guidance for a newbie.

Consider payments such as wages, rent, and other expenses for which there is no invoice, so we don't bother with a vendor. Just wishing to debit the expense and credit the bank account as usual when paid.

Does this have to be done by journal entry ?

I'd like my users to enter these as payments, and let SL create the credit side of the entry.

Should I create a dummy vendor called wages, and then treat the payment as a "pre-payment".

Does this cause other problems ?

Similar (but less frequent) issues for receipts from non-customers, eg proprietor putting funds into the business as a loan, or investment business receiving stock dividends. Can these be entered as receipts, and again keep users away from Journal entries ?

TIA's

David J