Quick question re splitting bills and borrowing/lending money
Derek Atkins
warlord at MIT.EDU
Mon Jul 7 12:28:09 CDT 2003
y7anect001 at sneakemail.com writes:
> I've gotten reasonably familiar with gnucash and understand split transactions (at least as far as salaries). I'm not sure how to deal with expenses shared with my fiancee, however...
>
> At first I thought it'd be pretty straightforward -- I figured I'd create an entry for her under Liabilities, treating our situation like a short-term loan, and just throw everything related in there. Things are seeming more complicated though, and I'm not sure how to handle them.
Well, honestly, the best way (from a relationship standpoint) is "don't"..
However.... (note, I'm assuming you are only keeping track of YOUR half
of the finances here)....
> Any suggestions will be a huge help. Consider the following cases:
>
> 1) My fiancee writes me a cheque and I cash it for her. This seems
> fairly straightforward. I set up two transfers, one to and one from
> her account.
Yep.
> 2) My fiancee and I have dinner, and it goes on her credit card. I
> expect to pay half. Here's my first stumbling block -- how do I
> treat this?
Your half is a liability. You create a txn from Liability:Fiance
(L:F) to Expenses:Dinner (E:D) for your half of the meal. When you
pay her, you create a txn from Cash (or Bank:Checking) to L:F to
pay off the liability.
> 3) My fiancee and I have dinner, and it goes on my credit card.
> She'll pay half later. I'm not sure how to handle this one either.
In this case you need a split txn... your half of the dinner is an
expense, and her half is an asset, Assets:Fiance (A:F). So, create a
split txn (assuming a $100 dinner, split 50/50):
Credit Card 100
A:F 50
E:D 50
Then, when she pays you, create a txn from A:F to Cash.
> 4) Similarly, I'm unsure how to handle a case where my fiancee or I
> pay 100% of a bill for the other, with the expectation that the
> money will be paid back entirely.
Then instead of a split txn it's a normal txn to the A:F or L:F
account depending which way the money is flowing.
> 5) Finally: We go out for lunch, spending $z, and both pay $x and $y
> dollars respectively ($x + $y = $z; $x != $y). How should this be
> treated?
The same way...
> My apologies if this has been covered elsewhere,
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Cael
-derek
--
Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board (SIPB)
URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/ PP-ASEL-IA N1NWH
warlord at MIT.EDU PGP key available
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