symlink account?

Andrew Gelvin Burley Grimes aggrimes at ncsu.edu
Thu Dec 16 09:38:21 EST 2004


Thanks everyone for all your useful input about this!




On Dec 15, 2004, at 9:04 PM, JIm wrote:

> Andrew Gelvin Burley Grimes wrote:
>
>> Is there a way to create a Gnucash expense account that actually acts
>> like something of a symbolic link in Unix?  Here's what I mean --
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I have a placeholder expense account, "Insurance," containing
>> subaccounts "Auto" & "Homeowners"
>>
>> I also have a placeholder expense account "Taxes," containing
>> subaccount "Property Tax" (among others)
>>
>> I would like to create an expense account "Escrow," with subaccounts
>> "Homeowners Insurance" and "Property tax," so I can keep track of what
>> I have paid into escrow on my mortgage.  However, these accounts
>> already exist under their other respective parent accounts.  Is there 
>> a
>> way to set up an account such that it looks over into another account
>> to get its balance?  Or, is it possible for an account to have two
>> separate parent accounts?
>>
>> Am I conceptualizing this whole thing incorrectly?
>>
>>
>>
>> thanks for your thoughts,
>>
>> Drew
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Drew Grimes
>> North Carolina State University
>> http://www4.ncsu.edu/~aggrimes
> I think you are conceptualizing things incorrectly.
>
> Escrow is not an expense.  It is more like you putting money into a 
> savings
> account to make payments from later.
>
> The way I do it is:
> The monthly mortgage payment is split between principal, interest and
> escrow.  The escrow amount goes into an asset account "escrow", the
> principal goes into reducing the liability account "mortgage ", the
> interest goes into the expense acount "mortgage interest".
>
> When the bank makes payments to the insurance company or for property 
> taxes
> (they show on my mortgage statement), I enter those as transactions 
> between
> the escrow account and the appropriate expense account.  Same thing 
> when
> the bank pays interest into my escrow account, I have a transaction 
> between
> the income account "escrow interest" and the asset account "escrow".
>
> This way all the expenses and interest income is properly tracked and 
> I can
> look at my mortgage statement and verify that my escrow, principal and
> interest paid match my records.
>
> -- 
> Jim
>








Drew Grimes
North Carolina State University
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~aggrimes



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