New User - Nested Split Transactions?

[Don Levey]

Josh Sled <jsled at asynchronous.org> 
09/07/2005 10:03 AM

To
Don Levey <dlevey at abinitio.com>
cc
gnucash-user at gnucash.org
Subject
Re: New User - Nested Split Transactions?




>Maybe I misunderstood your original question.  You're free to do the
>following as a single transaction:
>
>9/7/05 - Deposit
>  Aug + Sep paycheck Income:Salary           2000
>  Aug + Sep paycheck Assets:Bank:Checking          2000
>
>And, you're free to do something like:
>
>9/7/05 - Deposit
>  Aug paycheck       Income:Salary           1000
>  Aug investment     Assets:Investment:401k         250
>  Sep paycheck       Income:Salary           1000
>  Sep investment     Assets:Investment:401k         250
>  Paychecks          Assets:Bank:Checking          1500
>
>Or even:
>
>9/7/05 - Deposit
>  Aug paycheck       Income:Salary           1000
>  Aug investment     Assets:Investment:401k         250
>  Aug paycheck       Assets:Bank:Checking           750
>  Sep paycheck       Income:Salary           1000
>  Sep investment     Assets:Investment:401k         250
>  Sep paycheck       Assets:Bank:Checking           750
>
>
>And add as many splits on either side forwhatever you like.
>
>If do are doing multiple "logical" transactions (aug salary, sep salary)
>as part of one "physical" transaction (depositing two checks at the
>ATM), then you lose the correlation between the split-groups in anything
>other than how you name them.  But if that's not critical for you to
>model, you can stack up splits on both the credit and debit sides of the
>transaction; the only constraint on transactions is that the sum of all
>splits must be 0... they must balance.

[Sorry for the formatting; I'm on my work machine right now using Notes 
because the list won't accept mail from my home account, or even from my 
ISP, and I can't even get mail to the domain postmasters]

John,
I think you may be using the account into which you are depositing as an 
intermediate account, at least that is the way it looks to me.

Here's what I'm doing, and perhaps I'm doing in wrong:

When I receive a paycheck, I enter a transaction into my Income account. 
That is a split transaction:

<date>Paycheck                                  $1000
        Assets:checking         $500
        Expenses:retirement     $100
        Expenses:tax:Federal    $200
        Expenses:tax:state      $100
        Expenses:tax:medicare   $50
        Expenses:tax:SSI                $50
        Income:Paycheck:Employer:               $1000


So that Assets line goes directly into the checking account as a single 
transaction.  Some checks are direct deposit, and so as single 
transactions there is a match.  But sometimes I have non-direct-deposit 
checks, and if I deposit more than one I can't draw that first line 
(Assets:checking  $500) into the deposit line to make up the total of the 
deposit.

I think Derek has what might be the solution, as I suspected: an 
intermediate account.  Instead of sending the net amount directly to 
checking, send it to an "undeposited checks" account.  Then, when the 
check itself is deposited along with others, I can draw out the correct 
amount as one line item in a split deposit.  The amounts will match, it 
will just seem like two separate transactions (which, in some sense, they 
are: check and deposit).

Thanks all!
 -Don



Here's whaForwardSourceID:NT0008CECE