Structure question

[Georg Wilckens]

On Fri, Sep, 28, 2001 at 07:36:27 -0400, Paul Waldo wrote:

Hi Paul.

> I'm new to gnucash and have a question on how to structure accounts.  I
> have recently started a consulting business with myself as the only
> employee.  I'd like to have my personal finances as well as the company
> finances managed by gnucash.  When the company writes me a paycheck, for
> example, I'd like for company accounts to be reduced and my personal
> accounts to be increased.  Is this a reasonable thing to do and, if so,
> what is a good way to structure the accounts?  Any thoughts or comments
> would be greatly appreciated!

I would strongly suggest to keep the business data and private data in
separate files to avoid any confusion. In the business-file you should
have the accounts: Expense->Salary (or similar) and the account
Assets->Bank (or similar). In the private-file you should have
Income->Salary and Assets->Bank. Thus a paycheck from your company
would result in the following transactions:

Business:
  $ xxx   Assets->Bank    ----->  Expense->Salary

Private:
  $ xxx   Income->Salary  ----->  Assets->Bank

This has the negative side-effect that you will have to enter two
transactions (one for private, one for business) for every paycheck,
but it's still the Right Thing [TM], if you ever want to make use of
the collected financial data (like calculating profits, ...).

Regards,
	Georg
-- 
"Why do we have to hide from the police, Daddy?"
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