totally confused

[Tommy Trussell]

On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 5:09 AM, Bob Alexander <gogonegro at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear friends I feel really stupid :(
>
> Please help me setup a sensible account setup. Here is what I am trying to
> model:
>
> each month when I get my salary statement from my employer I have something
> like this:
>
> Net pay for August : 5000
>
> car insurance : - 100
> meals            : - 50
> personal calls : -50
> pay advance   : - 800
> expense reimb: + 500
>
>
> Transfer to bank : 4500
>
> So I want to input an entry "Salary for august" of 4500 in my income account
> "Employer" and link it to my checkings account "1977". So far this is easy
>
> I also have a transports, meals and telephone expense accounts on which I
> would like to track those -100, -50 and -50 entries but do not understand
> how to input these
>
> I also have no clue on how to handle the pay advance concept (my employer
> having paid me 800 the months before and now this month after closing it's
> assessment having given the definitive sum which can be different) nor how
> to handle the expense reimbursement thing (expenses I incurred for the
> company and that I receive a reimbursement for example a plane ticket).

I am NOT an accountant, so take whatever I say and discount it accordingly!

What I do is think about how the money affects me. SO when I spend $40
for something automobile related, it goes in expenses:auto. If it
turns out the money is to be reimbursed by someone, I apply that back
to expenses:auto when I get paid. (It looks like a negative expense or
a deposit when you look at the expenses:auto account.) If this comes
up all the time and you need to keep track of it separately, just set
up a separate account, such as Expenses:To Be Reimbursed. Or you can
have multiple expense accounts corresponding to the lines in the
reimbursement forms your employer uses.

When you get an advance on your salary, wouldn't that be a loan? So
create an account called Liabilities:Salary Advance. When you "repay"
that via a payroll deduction, that amount applies against the balance
(principal of the loan), and any interest the employer charges is an
expense, such as Expenses:Interest:Salary Advance.

That's the way I think about my books, and this keeps my CPA happy at tax time.

Have a look at http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/FAQ#Accounting_Questions