Question about loan opening balances

[Richard Gilligan]

On Jun 29, 2005, at 7:31 PM, Alan Munter wrote:

> I am trying to think of a way to take the current balance
> from something like Expenses:Education or something like that, but I
> spent that money years ago.

Using Equity:Opening Balances is the fastest way to move forward.

However, I find it useful to memorialize important transactions 
regardless of how long they occurred before I started using Gnucash.

In your case it would be nice to record your original loan amount and 
possibly the total interest and payments prior to consistent recording.

Make a transaction for the loan _origination_ date showing
Liabilities:Student Loan --> Expenses:Education.

Make a transaction on the day _before_ you began consistent accounting 
adjusting the loan balance to what you would enter as equity:opening 
balance.

Do
Liabilities:Student_Loan --> Expenses:Education:Student_Loan_Interest
to adjust the balance up.

Or do
Income --> Liabilities:Student Loan
to adjust the balance down.

(Or do both if you know or care to research the lump sum figures.)


This puts a more complete accounting of your student loan in your 
gnucash books.

Cheers,

Richard