possible to see into the future with scheduled transactions

B Walker brenden at diablops.com
Thu Sep 20 21:34:24 EDT 2007


On Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:08:59 -0500
"Alan Hartless" <harty83 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone has a convenient way that they "see into the
> future" concerning scheduled transactions and where the account
> balance will be after that transaction occurs?
> 
> MS Money would show the account balance after a bill occurred.  I
> want to do something similar in GnuCash.  That way I can look through
> to the end of the month and see an estimate of the account balance
> after all my scheduled bills/deposits have been made.

Well, I do it a bit differently, but I'll give you my take.  Under my checking account I have several sub accounts (utilities, automotive, household, etc) at the beginning of each month I put use scheduled transactions to enter my budget amounts into the appropriate sub-accounts.  This way the main account shows the sum of all sub-accounts (actual balance of checking account) but if I open up the checking account register it shows what I'll have left over at the end of the month (considering paychecks for the month haven't been entered, that can scare ya from spending too much ;-).

Bill are paid from subaccounts of checking (even though the payment is coming from the checking account).  I also make split credit card transactions into four entries, out of asset account and into 'CC bill' sub account (so if I'm buying gas, out of automotive sub account and into CC Bill sub-account) and another pair moving money into appropriate expense account from CC liability account.  This way the balance of my CC account is already 'taken out' of the checking account even though the money hasn't left.

Hope that all makes sense. I know it's not exactly what you were looking for, but perhaps it will give you some ideas.


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