Tracking business expenses from personal account

[Maf. King]

On Monday 14 Feb 2005 19:50, Mike wrote:
> Hi all,
> Apologies for my earlier slip of the send button with a nearly blank post,
> <cringe> it had to happen on my first post to a new list....
>

Hi Mike.

Did wonder... ;-)

> I am in the process of setting up a set of accounts for a new company. I
> will be doing many expenses out of my personal accounts, and would like
> some input on what the best way would be to track these.
>

I do this! (but IANAA)

> I've thought about combining both into the same file, but that's just too
> messy when it comes to taxes and the likes (or is it?). So I have separate
> account files for both.
>

2 data files for sure - you and the company are logically and probably legally 
separate entities.  Keep things physically separate.

> In theory it's simple - I spend and claim it back from the company. The
> company pays me a lump sum at the end of the month. This is kindof workable
> by setting up 'to claim' expense accounts in my personal accounts and
> (here's the first bit I don't like) entering everything twice - again in
> the company's accounts.

Bit of a chore, I agree.  But what I read over the weekend here about Neil 
Williams' qof_merge stuff sounds like it might help with this, in the future.

> This won't balance however, because there are 
> non-expense items included in the company reimbursement such as mileage
> claims. So do I have a non-taxable income account for reimbursements? I
> would ideally like to do a reconciliation to make sure that everything is
> claimed correctly, but that seems impossible purely on account balances.
>
> Surely this must be a common scenario (and I've searched through the
> archives). Is there no simple way to track this? Any suggestions/pointers
> would be most welcome.
>

What I do, and YMMV (pun intended):

I buy something, and want to claim it back from the company - that is a 
transaction entered in such that I 

increase Liabilities:MyExpenses, transfered to the relevant expense account(s)

when I come to claim my mileage allowance and get expenses refunded, there is 
a transaction like this:

Bank:current  - withdraw £100
Liabilities:MyExpenses - deposit £60
Expenses:mileage - deposit £40

that way, my expenses reconcile against my credit card easily, I can see how 
much mileage payment I have had, and I only need to make one payment from the 
company to myself.

In my personal books, the split goes to assets:company_expenses and 
income:mileage, with a total deposited in my bank account.

hope that makes sense to you.

Maf.


> Cheers
> Mike
>
>
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-- 
Maf. King
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