Budgeting Summary 1 - first draft

[Rick Ziegler]

On Tue, 2003-09-09 at 07:03, Darin Willits wrote:

> I like this idea, and I agree that it could solve the problem of
> multiple savings goals residing in one physical account.  

Great! :)

> But I wonder
> if we aren't trying to solve too much within the budgeting
> architecture.  

Perhaps, perhaps not.  This was an issue raised by several others within
the budgeting conversation.


> To me a savings goal is more of an *actual* account than a budget
> category.  Every month I will want to transfer $X from my
> Assets:Chequing Account into my savings goal account.  This way I can
> see exactly where my savings goal is at any given point in time.  

Running this budget report will tell you this as well.

> Using
> the method described here:
> http://www.gnucash.org/gnucash-devel/March-2000/msg00529.php3
> I can even ensure that the transactions in my Assests:Chequing Account
> match my bank statements.

My quick reading of the method outlined in that message seems to skew
your net worth calculation.

My reading of the current budgeting thread seems to show a consensus
around separating budget categories, including savings goals, from the
primary account tree.  One reason for that is exactly the above - some
techniques skew net worth calculations, and make it difficult to
reconcile with statements.

> 
> To be certain you would have a budget category associated with your
> saving goal so that you could budget and track your contributions to
> your savings goal.  But the savings goal itself will be modelled as a
> separate entity (much like an account).

This is an interesting idea.  I had outlined two methods for
automatically "funding" the savings goals.  A third option could be
manual account style transactions.  

Drawbacks to that method are that now we need access to a register
within the reporting system, and each transaction would need to be
entered manually.

> 
> I guess where I am going with all this is the suggestion that we not try
> to do everything within the budget.  Maybe we need another abstraction
> within gnucash to handle the concept of a savings goal?  Maybe a new
> account type and some nice GUI's to set them up?

I think this fits very nicely within budgeting, and am reluctant to
introduce too many more account types or abstractions.

I know several people who chose not to use gnucash because of the double
entry accounting ( Hi dad, Hi sis! ).  These people wanted a simple
checkbook register.  These same people were also interested in budgets,
and savings goals.  I feel to introduce another, truly abstract account
type would drive these people away further.

regards-
Rick