Combined Personal plus Businesses in same file

Dave dave at davestechshop.net
Tue Apr 8 18:04:31 EDT 2008


On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 11:50 AM, Derek Atkins <warlord at mit.edu> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> MountainX <dave at davestechshop.net> writes:
>
> > I just downloaded GnuCash. I've been using MS Money (the version for
> personal
> > + business). I have a couple small businesses (for example, a single
> rental
> > property in its own company).
> >
> > I want to keep all transactions in the same file. Mainly I want to have
> > flexibility to change account assignments across entities without
> > re-entering transactions in another file.
> >
> > I often use the same credit card for purchases across all entities.
> > Furthermore, some purchases are split amount entities. I cannot justify
> > separate files for each entity because that leads to a lot more data
> entry
> > when I have to change the entity associated with an entry.
> >
> > I thought about using MoneyDance because its "tags" feature would
> facilitate
> > this functionality. Unfortunately, java apps don't work well with
> > compiz-fusion, so MoneyDance is out of consideration for now.
> >
> > What is the best way to accomplish my goal with GnuCash? Thanks.
> >
> > P.S. This is my first post to Nabble. I may have double posted - not
> sure.
> > If so, forgive me.
>
> Yeah, you double-posted.  I'll ignore that.
>
> But to try to answer your question -- GnuCash does not have "Tags"
> support.  The closest you can do is create multiple income/expense
> account hierarchies for each entity.  But frankly GnuCash's model
> really is one-taxable-entity-per-file.  So if your various businesses
> are individual taxable entities then you really should have multiple
> data files.  However if they are just DBAs then you should just
> use parallel hierachies.
>

Thank you. My past experience indicates that the
"one-taxable-entity-per-file" model will not work for me. My entities are
separate taxable entities (corporations), but for the last 15 years I have
used Quicken or MS Money (home + business versions) where all entities can
be in one file. This has worked so well I don't want to change my method --
but I do want to leave Windows & MS Money behind and move all my apps to
Linux.

I guess that leaves me evaluating the concept of parallel hierachies. Where
can I learn more about the advantages and disadvantages?

Is it possible to generate separate reports for each legal entity using the
parallel hierachies method? Thanks again.

Dave


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