Multiple-person account keeping?

[The Nose Who Knows]

Howdy all,

I've recently been attempting to track expenses in a two-person share
household, and was moderately successful with a bodgy Gnumeric
spreadsheet concoction (don't all financial solutions start this way?)
Now, however, I'm about to move into a new house with three people, and
my already-hairy spreadsheet just won't do.

How painful would it be to use GnuCash to track expenses that need to be
shared between different people?  Each expense may require a different
amount of payment from each person, and may be initially paid in full by
one person, who then needs appropriate reimbursement from the others.
Also, I need to be able to know at a glance who owes how much to whom.

I've started an experimental chart of accounts:

  1000 House accounts
    1100 Expenses
      1110 Bills
    1200 Payments
      1210 Person 1 Payments
      1220 Person 2 Payments
      1230 Person 3 Payments

This seems to work, in a way, but requires many entries for each
expense, and doesn't quite show who owes what to whom.  Is there a
better way?  Am I solving something that has been done much more
elegantly by others?  Am I trying to force GnuCash to do something evil
and perverse?  Any advice on how to get this working appreciated.

 \
  `\
_o__) BIGNOSE