how to view total for expenses subaccount

[Girard Aquino]

Nathan Watson-Haigh wrote:
> I think there is some confusion with the way you are using the expense
> accounts and this is complicating/confusing what you are trying to achieve.
>
> You should have a credit card account (e.g. Liabilities:Credit Cards:Credit
> Card 1) and a series of expense accounts (e.g. Expenses:Groceries and
> Expenses:Auto:Gas). Expense accounts shouldn't be used directly to record
> how much you are spending in each of the categories, instead, you should use
> the actual account you used for that expense (e.g. your credit card) by
> making a payment from your credit card to the expense account. Thus when you
> look at your credit card transactions, you'll see X amount spent on
> Groceries and Y amount spent on Auto:Gas. When you make a Credit Card
> Payment by creating a transaction for money moving from your bank account to
> your credit card, the payment isn't assigned to pay off a particular expense
> account (e.g. Auto:Gas) in preference of another, it is simply reducing your
> liability - tracking your expenses, is done separately to the payment. 
>
> For a step-by-step example, I have the following accounts:
>
> Assets:Checking Accounts:Bank Account 1
> Liabilities:Credit Cards:Credit Card 1
> Expenses:Auto:Gas
>
> Initially, all the balances are zero. I purchase $50 of gas using Credit
> Card 1 so I go to Credit Card 1 and enter a transaction by transferring $50
> to the Expenses:Auto:Gas. T this point the balance of Credit Card 1 is $50
> and the Expenses:Auto:Gas shows I've spent $50 on Gas. When it comes to
> paying the bill for Credit Card 1, I enter a transaction in Assets:Checking
> Accounts:Bank Account 1 to transfer $50 to Credit Card 1. That's it. My
> Credit Card 1 bill is paid and the account balance is now zero, the expense
> account shows I've spent $50 on Gas, and my Bank Account is $50 overdrawn.
>
> I hope this helps,
> Nathan
>
>   

Thanks for that, but I this is exactly how I enter my transactions. My 
original problem was including the Liabilities that went somewhere in 
the Expenses account in the Cash Flow report.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Girard Aquino [mailto:girardaquino at hotmail.com] 
> Sent: Wednesday, 29 October 2008 12:20 PM
> To: stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com; gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Subject: Re: how to view total for expenses subaccount
>
>
> Mike or Penny Novack wrote:
>   
>> Girard Aquino wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> Hi. I need help trying to produce a report for our monthly expenses 
>>> for one of the Expenses subaccounts. I don't have any problems with 
>>> transactions I pay for using my debit/checking account because this 
>>> is easily tracked by Reports>Income&Expense>Cash Flow. My problem is 
>>> with transactions i pay for using my credit card. When iIdownload my 
>>> CC transaction history they all go to liabilities>CC, and I transfer 
>>> the CC transactions to their respective Expenses subaccount such as 
>>> Groceries, Dining, Auto>Gas, etc....
>>>       
>> Correct --- you "book" the expense as the liability is assumed (date 
>> of the credit card transaction)
>>
>>     
>>> Then when I pay for the CC bill for the month, I use my 
>>> checking/debit which lowers my liabilities. But then, I lose track of 
>>> how much of the liability in CC went to what Expenses subaccount.
>>>
>>>       
>> Why? Can't see how you lose anything here. You are paying off part (or 
>> all) of the liability (credit card debt). At this time there is no 
>> connect to how/why the liability came into existence.
>>     
> I see your point there. But I would like to keep track of how much we 
> are spending on each of the Expenses subaccounts (i.e. Groceries) for 
> the current month. So while I am able to transfer and therefore 
> categorize the CC transactions into the different Expenses subaccounts, 
> I am not able to track how much of the money from my checking which goes 
> into paying the Liabilities>CC actually goes into what Expenses 
> subaccount. This is because a CC bill of 600, simply shows as a single 
> CC payment from checking into Liabilities>CC. But how much of that 600 
> went into Groceries, Gas, etc... I cannot view (or cannot figure out 
> how, until now) using the reports (Thank you Robert!!!)
>   
>>> Or one could say that I lose track of how much of the CC payment went 
>>> to what Expenses subaccount. I was trying to view how much we were 
>>> spending on groceries for the month, but realized the report I 
>>> produced with Reports>Income&Expense>Cash Flow was inaccurate because 
>>> of this. Any tips on how to go about this? Thank you.
>>>  
>>>
>>>       
>> Again, unsure of what you perceive as the problem. Money is considered 
>> "fungible" (freely exchangeable). The amount of expense you have for 
>> "groceries" for the month has nothing to do with whether you paid for 
>> these groceries with cash out of your pocket, a check, by assuming 
>> credit card debt, etc. If you actually are losing transactions, you 
>> need to try to explain to us where that appears to be happening.
>>
>> Michael
>>
>>     
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>>     
>
>
>
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