Virtual accounts

[Mike or Penny Novack]

>
>I don't know, but I can tell you how I would do it (unless someone now
>explains to me why this is stupid): I'd use two separate expense
>accounts, e.g., Expenses:Interest:Deductible and
>Expenses:Interest:Non-Deductible.
>
>  
>
Take a good look at what Adam wrote because it is a perfect example why 
we cannot expect "canned solutions" -- why an application like GnuCash 
will be most generally useful if it allows us to structure the chart of 
accounts the way we want to even if that means work setting up that 
structure. The important point is that the right structure depends upon 
the purpose for which the books are kept, what sort of information needs 
to be easily obtainable. Since your purpose might be different than mine 
and both different from Adam's there is no way some "one size fits all" 
solutions would work.

To give an example, were I keeping OUR personal books under GnuCash I 
would be reversing that. My breakdown would be 
Expenses:Deductible:Interest and Expenses:Non-Deductible:Interest   The 
reason for that is "obtaining information useful for filing income 
taxes" more important than "knowing how much paid for interest in toto". 
So I'd want all deductible expense accounts under one parent and all 
non-deductible expenses under another. It's not that's a "more right" 
solution, just more suited to somebody who files "itemized".

Michael