[GNC] envelope method, equity sub-accounts, cash vs. hybrid vs. accrual accounting

[Adrien Monteleone]

Peter,

There is a checkbox at the beginning of reconciliation to 'include 
sub-accounts'. That should make it easy.

GnuCash reconciliation is not scary. You simply enter your statement 
date and ending balance, then check off each transaction as you match 
them up to your statement. When everything is checked off, the 
difference between actual ending and expected ending balance should be 
zero. If not, something needs investigation, or a balancing(correcting) 
transaction is in order.

When you get to the window to check off transactions, anything already 
marked 'cleared' will be checked off for you, so the process will go 
rather quickly.

Regards,
Adrien

On 8/13/20 7:09 PM, Peter West wrote:
> I use envelope budgeting, with one actual bank account, represented in Gnucash by multiple subaccounts. The account summary shows me the total amount in the actual account, which I can check against the balance of that account. I have scheduled transactions in Gc that deduct from my usual cash account (which is different again) into the subaccounts. At the bank, I have scheduled transfers that make those deductions from my cash account to my (single) budget account. When I know a bill is due, I schedule a payment at the bank from my single budget account, and likewise schedule a transaction in Gc.
> 
> The difficulties come in “reconciling” the budget accounts with the bank budget account. My accounts are set up so that the parent budget account shows the total of the subaccounts, but does not show the transactions. I may be able to make it do this, at least while “reconciling,” but I haven’t looked into it that far. So I hav to work from multiple Gc accounts against the single bank statement, which is a pain. However, as these are regular payments, that’s not so bad.
> 
> Incidentally, I use the scare quotes because I do not use Gc’s reconciliation mechanism. I started to look at it once, and it seemed incompatible with the way I was doing things. Now I reconcile manually against the statements by setting the cleared marker on the individual Gc transactions and then working out which ones I have forgotten to enter. I try to do entry regularly – ideally every evening – from the receipts I have collected during the day, including online receipts.
> 
> Obviously, only budgeted payments come out of the budget account. If I have to raid the budget, I’m living beyond my means. Confer with Mr Micawber. The whole point about having such a budget is that you don’t raid it. If you do, you’re stuffed, financially speaking.
> 
> With those caveats, envelope budgeting works for me.