Use of GnuCash : Importing versus reconcilation

[Wouter van Marle]

Dear Brendan,

I don't do telebanking so I can't tell.

Many small expenses are by cash for me, and about 50 transactions or so
by bank monthly for me so easy to do that by hand (usually same day or
once a week).

Wouter.

On Fri, 2007-05-04 at 12:09 +1000, Brendan Simon wrote:
> Thanks Wouter.  I see how using these sub-accounts work.
> 
> However, I'm wondering about the way I use GnuCash and whether it is 
> good or not ???
> 
> [1] Because I'm lazy, I thought I would pay as many expenses on my 
> Credit Card or using BPay, and all my income also paid electronically 
> into my savings account.  Then import the accounts into GC via 
> downloading QIF bank accounts and manually allocate these transactions 
> to appropriate expense, income accounts, etc as appropriate (yes, I know 
> GC can also be trained to do some of this).
> I guess I could have another sub-account to import the QIF files too (or 
> use the personal sub-account as the default import account) and then 
> "move" the transactions to the associated sub-accounts where necessary.  
> Is that sensible ???
> 
> [2] An alternative way, would be to enter the transactions manually from 
> various receipts, etc, then once a month (or a quarter, or a year) 
> import the QIF files and reconcile.
> 
> I presume option 2 is what a business with an accountant would do.  Is 
> this the way most personal users use GC, or are people using my lazy method?
> Does my lazy method make sense?
> 
> Thanks, Brendan.
> 
> 
> Wouter van Marle wrote:
> > Dear Brendan,
> >
> > I am doing very much that - just a little different. And that works
> > great.
> >
> > My situation:
> > - I have my own company, with bank account, cash account, credit card,
> > various assets, invoices, etc.
> > - I am managing a second company (not my own) through those same
> > accounts. Thus I have a Liability tree that holds all their expense and
> > income accounts.
> >
> > The bank account is split:
> > Assets
> > 	- Bank account
> > 		- Company 1 (my own)
> > 		- Company 2
> >
> > So the account Bank gives me the actual balance (should be the same as
> > what the bank tells me), and the two Company accounts give the amount
> > owned by the various companies.
> >
> > In your case: the problem may be keeping separate profits, if you would
> > need to do that. But I don't see that as something you can't solve in
> > the reports, just select the appropriate accounts.
> >
> > The credit card I also use for personal expenses, so there I have even
> > three children. Personal expenses I just book on equity in that case.
> >
> > So all in all I think this is no problem for GnuCash. It's quite
> > flexible.
> >
> > Wouter.
> >
> > On Fri, 2007-05-04 at 11:33 +1000, Brendan Simon wrote:
> >   
> >> I've got a number of small companies (that don't do much at the moment), 
> >> a couple of investment properties (in my name), a Family Trust with 
> >> associated company trustee, a Self Managed Superannuation Fund and an 
> >> associated company trustee.
> >>
> >> Ideally, I'd like to be able to see the accounts of each of these 
> >> entities separately.  ie. as if they were standalone businesses, etc.
> >>
> >> However, I would also like to have them all consolidated, particularly 
> >> as my some of my main transaction bank accounts are used for multiple 
> >> entities (eg. savings and VISA is used for personal, properties and for 
> >> paying fees for companies, etc).
> >>
> >> How can I use GnuCash to be able to view these entities individually and 
> >> also as a consolidated view.  I'm think the entities would be:
> >>     Personal, Property1, Property2, Company1, Company2, Family-Trust, 
> >> Superannuation-Trust.
> >>
> >>
> >> Can GnuCash do this?
> >>
> >> Can I have individual databases for each entity, and then some kind of 
> >> consolidated database?  I'm not sure if I would like this???
> >>
> >> Can I have multiple entities within the one database with their own 
> >> Income, Expense, Assets, Liabilities, etc?
> >> Example:
> >>     Personal
> >>        + Assets
> >>           + Savings-Account
> >>        + Liabilities
> >>           + VISA
> >>        + Income
> >>           + Salary
> >>        + Expneses
> >>           + Mobile-Phone
> >>     Property1
> >>        + Assets
> >>           + Savings-Account
> >>        + Liabilities
> >>           + Bank-Loan
> >>        + Income
> >>           + Rent
> >>        + Expenses
> >>           + Commission
> >>
> >> Or do I have to have to split them like this? (presumably with some kind 
> >> of filter or report to see accounts for each entity).
> >>     Assets
> >>        + Personal
> >>           + Savings-Account
> >>        + Property1
> >>           + Savings-Account
> >>     Liabilities
> >>        + Personal
> >>           + VISA
> >>        + Property1
> >>           + Bank-Loan
> >>     Income
> >>        + Personal
> >>           + Salary
> >>        + Property1
> >>           + Rent
> >>     Expenses
> >>        + Personal
> >>           + Mobile-Phone
> >>        + Property1
> >>           + Commission
> >>
> >> As another scneario, how would a parent company that owned other 
> >> companies/subsiduaries use GnuCash to report individual company 
> >> accounts, and then consolidated accounts ???
> >>
> >> Thanks, Brendan.
> >>
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> >>     
> >
> >   
> 
>