Account structure for IRA mutual funds

Sean Fulmer wsfulmer at gmail.com
Fri Nov 3 17:30:16 EST 2006


Hi list - 

GnuCash newbie here... I just finished setting up all of my accounts, starting
from nothing and importing QFX files downloaded from my bank. I think I've got
it all right, but I have one simple question, preceded by a lengthy explanation
of what I did:

IRA Mutual funds:
I selected 'Retirement Accounts" when creating my initial file, and this created
a single 'Mutual Fund' account. Since my IRA is actually a portfolio of several
mutual funds, I deleted that account.

I then proceeded to import the QFX file for my investment accounts. The first
prompt I received was to select/create an account for the entire portfolio (I
made that determination based on the account number shown in the prompt. I
created a new account 'IRA' as an asset account.

Next, I was prompted to identify the various securities in the QFX file - done.

Next, I was prompted to select/create stock accounts for each fund in my IRA. I
created a new account for each one, as children of the IRA asset account. I
later changed the type of these accounts from 'stock' to 'mutual fund'

Next, I was prompted to select/create income accounts for the income associated
with each fund. I created an "IRA Income" placeholder under "Income", then
created an income account for each fund under "IRA Income".

Finally, it came to matching transactions. I didn't have anywhere to account for
the stuff I rolled into the IRA from an old 401(k), so I created another asset
account for the 401(k), with an opening balance that matched the total of the
rollover.

So, my final account structure (related to my IRA) looks like this:

Assets (asset)
    Investments (asset)
        IRA (asset)
            Fund 1 (mutual fund)
            Fund 2 (mutual fund)
            Fund 3 (mutual fund)
        Old 401(k) (asset)
Income (income)
    IRA Income (income)
        Income for Fund 1 (income)
        Income for Fund 2 (income)
        Income for Fund 3 (income)

The income accounts have matching transactions in the fund accounts.

The IRA asset account has 'automated cash reversal' transactions that match to
the Old 401(k) asset account. The IRA asset account also has contribution
transactions that balance the automated cash reversal transactions, resulting in
a $0 balance on the IRA asset account.

So, finally, after all of that, the simple question is: Did I do it right?

Thanks -

Sean



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