Tracking Money in Savings Account

Maf. King maf at chilwell.net
Thu Dec 16 03:45:36 EST 2010


On Thursday 16 December 2010 08:15:55 Wayne Bird wrote:

> As I stated below, "I have some money in a savings account that has to be
> saved for retirement."  Therefore, it's just savings -- the money is
> actually in my savings account.  So, as you said, how do I set this up
> outside/apart from the Assets:Banking:Savings account, such as
> Assets:Banking:Retirement and still have the balance in
> Assets:Banking:Savings account be correct?  Having
> Assets:Banking:Savings:Retirement, in other words, a subaccount of savings
> makes sense to me, but I don't understand how it would work (have account
> balances be correct) if I separate the accounts.  Will you please explain
> if it does work.
>
> Thanks,
> Wayne
>

Hi Wayne.

I would use the sub-account structure you suggest above.
If you look at the register for Assets:Bank:savings, it will not include the 
subaccounts.  Each sub-account register will show the balance in that 
subaccount only.  I guess that the parent effectively becomes a kind 
of "overflow for miscellaneous txns sub-account" itself.

What you can do, though, is use the Accounts tree to see the total balance of 
the parent account and all sub-accounts.  You need the column "total" IIRC. 
If you don't see that column on the accounts tree page, click the little 
down-arrow at the far right of the screen, that should let you add it.

Also, when you come to reconcile your savings account, make sure that you 
check the "include sub-accounts" box!

HTH,
Maf.


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