categorizing

[Beth Leonard]

On Fri, Jun 17, 2005 at 11:50:01PM -0600, Matt Funk wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> i was wondering whether gnucash has the capability to cross reference rather 
> than just a hierarchical structure. 
> What i mean is this. Say i have 2 expense accounts. One is called Car and the 
> other House.
> Say now that under both i have an account called Insurance.
> 
> Is there any way in gnucash to give me all the account called insurance?

To the best of my knowledge there is no current way to do this, you
have to re-parent the accounts as needed.

Basically you have to ask yourself, how do I plan to use this data?
There are a few possible reasons: 1) You have to do your taxes and
you need to know where you spent your money at the end of the year.
2) You want to know where your money goes so that you can plan for
the future.  (Can I afford to quit my job?)
3) You are running a business and you need to organize the data in
a way that makes it most clear how you are making a profit without
hurting cash flow.

If you frequently at a glance want to know the answer to the question,
"How much does owning a car cost me?" put car insurance under the "car"
account.  If you more frequently want to answer the question "How
much do I pay in insurance of various types, my fixed expenses?" put
"car insurance" under the parent "insurance" account.

It is possible to change which account is the parent account later,
but it is a pain to separate out transactions that are all in a single
account.

So, do this: (recommended)
  Expenses:Car:Car Insurance
  Expenses:Car:Gas
  Expenses:House:Homeowners Insurance
  Expenses:House:Repairs
  Expenses:Medical:Medical Insurance

*OR* do this: (if you prefer)
  Expenses:Car:Gas
  Expenses:House:Repairs
  Expenses:Insurance:Car Insurance
  Expenses:Insurance:Homeowners Insurance
  Expenses:Insurance:Medical Insurance

But DON'T do this:
  Expenses:Car:Gas
  Expenses:House:Repairs
  Expenses:Insurance
where Insurance is just a single account that you have transactions
for each of homeowners insurance, medical insurance, and car insurance
directly out of your bank account.  In that third case it would
be very hard to total up how much you spent on Medical insurance
for a year, which is likely a separate line-item on your taxes.

You can change between type one and type two fairly easily to get
different totals if you need them, but once you do type 3 it's
a pain to get to type one or two.  You can stop yourself from
accidently doing type three by declaring Expenses:Insurance to be
a placeholder account.  Then you can't put any transactions directly
in it by accident.

--Beth 
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+                             Beth Leonard                          +
+       O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave              +
+       O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?        +
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