Account manipulation question

[Maf. King]

On Thursday 14 September 2006 11:57, Jason wrote:
>
<SNIP>

> Now, one option is to keep doing this above and separate from my
> personal book keeping. That is, record the bills we bring in at 50% in
> my personal record and don't bother with his portion in GNUCash, keep
> doing it with my spreadsheet.
>
> But I figure there has to be a decent way to work this scenario in
> GNUCash with the porper use of expense, asset, and liability accounts. I
> just can't seem to piece it together.
>
> Anyone have any advice?
>

Hi Jason,

Here are my thoughts about this:
1. add an asset (or liability) account called eg. Roommate.  It doesn't matter 
which type you choose, but maybe if he generally owes you money, asset might 
be the best choice.  Then when you owe him money, you have a negative 
balance... I'll assume this setup for the rest of this post.

2. You pay rent, whatever, and split the bill 50/50 between your usual expense 
account and asset:roommate. A:roommate now shows a sum owing to you.

3. He pays electricity, whatever, you book a transaction between 
asset:roommate and expense:electric for only your 50% share of that bill.
the asset account is now somewhat reduced.

4. at the end of the month, take the account balance and settle it with a 
cheque between asset and checking (either you pay him or the other way round, 
will govern the flow of funds here) Asset account is then 0.00 and a new 
month starts.

5. IANAA, so use at your own risk!

HTH,
Maf.