tracking cash

[David Proulx]

I've developed a habit of getting a receipt for my cash purchases as
often as possible.  If there's no receipt I write a note about the
expense in my Palm Pilot or write it on a scrap of paper and stick that
in my wallet.

Once or twice a week I enter all the receipts and notes into the
GnuCash "cash" account, and "balance" the register with what is in my
wallet.  If I have missed some expenses (indicated by less money in
the wallet than Gnucash says I should have) I add an entry from cash
to "Unaccounted".  But I end up with less than $100 a year on Unaccounted.
To me, Unaccounted is much more accurate than "Miscellaneous".  I also
have a Miscellaneous account, but I *know* what those individual
expenses are.

Gnucash's reporting is only as good as the data you enter, so I think
this is well worth the trouble (and it really is not very hard, nor
does it take much time).  I've been doing it for several years
(used to use Quicken), and it was a real eye-opener at first.  For
example, once I saw how much money I was dropping into vending
machines at work, I quickly stopped.  Things like that REALLY add up.

Dave


James LewisMoss writes:
 > >>>>> On Wed, 4 Apr 2001 22:45:24 -0400, "Michael P. Soulier" <msoulier@storm.ca> said:
 > 
 >  Michael> On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 10:25:17PM -0400, James LewisMoss
 >  Michael> wrote:
 >  >> Every once in a while I go "I probably spent about 80% of this on
 >  >> lunches and some percent on something else and some percent on
 >  >> something else" and I make up fake transactions transferring 80%
 >  >> of the money in the cash account to Expenses:Food:Dining-Out and
 >  >> the same for the rest.
 > 
 >  Michael>     So, how do you know if those transactions balance? You
 >  Michael>     can reconcile a
 >  Michael> bank account with your statement, but how do you know the
 >  Michael> other accounts balance?
 > 
 > Since the other accounts I'm transferring to are expense accounts I
 > don't worry about a "balance".  I'm more worried about having a
 > decently accurate knowledge of the amount of money I spent dining out
 > or on book or whatever.  So I know my transfers to the expenses aren't
 > totally accurate they are more so (at least I hope) than just dumping
 > the unaccounted for cash into a CASHBLOWN or Expenses:Misc category.
 > 
 >  Michael>     I realize that this is a basic gnucash question, but I
 >  Michael>     don't think I've
 >  Michael> quite "gotten it" yet.
 > 
 > I worry about my bank accounts being accurate.  The rest is used for
 > reporting as far as I'm concerned.  And for that case I want to know I
 > dumped a bunch of my cash on dining out so I can see how much more I
 > should eat at home. :)
 > 
 > Jim
 > 
 > -- 
 > @James LewisMoss <dres@debian.org>      |  Blessed Be!
 > @    http://jimdres.home.mindspring.com |  Linux is kewl!
 > @"Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they're yours." Bach
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