Combined Personal plus Businesses in same file

[Derek Atkins]

Dave <dave at davestechshop.net> writes:

> I think multiple hierarchies (as was explained to me by Derek) sounds close to
> this. However, since I haven't tried it before and since it is not recommended
> generally, I want to understand it in more detail. I would appreciate it if
> anyone will discuss with me some of the pros and cons of using multiple
> hierarchies in one file, in the context I have outlined above. Thanks.

The issue is that in GnuCash there is no account type that can hold
every other account type.  Accounts are grouped into three categories:
Equity, Asset/Liability, and Income/Expense.  So you would need three
hierarchies per entity:

  Eq-X
  Eq-Y
  Eq-Z
  A/L-X
  A/L-Y
  A/L-Z
  I/E-X
  I/E-Y
  I/E-Z

You may even want to break it out more into separate Asset,
Liability, Income, and Expense top-levels per tree, but that's
up to you.

When you run reports you'll have to choose which account hierachies
you want to include.  This means none of the standard reports will
work pre-configured; you'll have to get very familiar with the 
report options.  BUT.. Once you set them up you should be able to
save it as a custom report for later use.

I wont get into the pros/cons here; you should talk to a real
accountant on that.  But GnuCash wasn't really designed for this,
but it can be made to work with a LOT of effort on your part.

> Dave

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
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