New GnuCash user questions

[Dennis Muhlestein]

Scott Seidl wrote:
> I'm working to use GnuCash instead Excel spreadsheets to track my personal
> finances and am running into a couple questions which I'm hoping the GnuCash
> community can help me with.
> 
> #1 - I'm in need of advise on setting up an Envelope Budget in GnuCash or
> advise on switching from Envelope Budgeting to GnuCash Budgeting.  I have
> been doing envelope budgeting in Excel for about 2 years and am hoping to
> simplify the data entry / maintenance required.  The information I have
> found on various websites/wiki has only helped confuse and frustrate me.

Here is how I do envelope budgeting:
http://allmybrain.com/2008/12/15/better-budgeting-with-gnucash/

There is a thread a bit ago on this list that talks a lot about it. 
There are a couple alternatives depending on what suites your needs best.

> #2 -  I wanted to transfer $500 from savings to checking, but have splits to
> match my budget amounts to show how I got to $500.  The $500 consisted of:
> $250 for Car Payment, $100 for Mortgage, $75 Grocery, $75 for Electricity.
> So I created a split transaction in my Savings Account Register where I had
> a debit of $500 from Savings, and 4 Deposits into Checking.  When I looked I
> my Checking Register I found 4 Transaction lines instead of 1.  Is there an
> option to collapse these 4 transactions into 1?

My transactions look like this:

checking debit 500 (note that this matches your physical bank account)
savings credit 500
budget:car credit 250
budget:house credit 100
budget:grocery credit 75
budget:electricity credit 75
budget:budgeted cash debit 500 (this is a virtual account that balances 
my budget category to 0)

The alternatives discussed on the list involve using a real bank account 
for a budget account and showing your budget as a liability on your 
balance sheet.  I don't have a real bank account that I want to use as a 
budget account and I have money on lots of different places that I want 
to account for in my budget.  For this reason, I choose to balance my 
budget to $0 with the virtual account.

> 
> Thanks
> Scott
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