Tracking Money in Savings Account

Wayne Bird wrbird at hotmail.com
Thu Dec 16 12:20:35 EST 2010


Derek,

Thanks for your response, I was looking forward to it.

> >   * Assets:Bank:Checking
> >   * Assets:Bank:Checking:Healthcare:Dental
> 
> You don't need this account unless you're budgeting for Dental expenses.

That was my plan.  I was going to have a subaccount where I would be putting some of my paycheck in it for future dental expenses.  Exactly, I would be splitting all of my paycheck up into various subaccounts.  So, as stated in previous e-mails, I would know how much money I have to spend in any specific subaccount, e.g. movies.

> >   * Assets:Bank:Savings
> >   * Assets:Bank:Savings:Inheritance
> 
> You don't need this account unless you're trying to track how much of
> your Inheritance you have left.

Yes, I definitely need to track how much Inheritance I have left!  This is where I get confused; I would think everyone who keeps track of their finances would want to be able to account for where all there income is or has gone.  Why wouldn't you keep track of how much of your Inheritance is left?

> This can just be I:Inheritance -> A:B:Savings (unless you're trying to
> track your inheritance balance).

Yes, definitely need to track inheritance balance.

> This is wrong.  You should never use an Opening Balance unless the
> balance existed prior to your starting to use GnuCash.  Once you start,
> you should never use the Opening Balance account ever again.  This
> should be a transfer from L:Dentist -> Ex:H:Dental

Perfect!!  Thanks for this information!!

> Again, no need for the subaccounts here.  You can just do directly from
> A:B:Savings -> A:B:Checking.  In particular, unless you are specifically
> budgeting for future Dental expenses there is no need for the subaccount.

But this was my plan as stated above.

> This is completely wrong.  At this point you are paying down the
> Liability that you incurred in step 2 (when you went to the dentist).
> So it's just a transfer from A:B:Checking -> L:Dentist.

Yes, I understand.  As stated above, since I'm using subaccounts, would the transaction be A:B:C:H:Dental -> L:Dentist?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!!  I'm also in discussion with Michael trying to understand how to use "standard" accounting without the use of all these subaccounts.  However, as you noted (unless you are specifically budgeting for future expenses), I'm not sure I can do it.

Wayne




> From: warlord at MIT.EDU
> To: wrbird at hotmail.com
> CC: derek at ihtfp.com; gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Subject: Re: Tracking Money in Savings Account
> Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 09:23:57 -0500
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Wayne Bird <wrbird at hotmail.com> writes:
> 
> > OK, another scenario, same situation:
> >
> > This is what actually happens:
> >
> >  1. I receive an inheritance check for $aaa.
> >  2. Deposit the inheritance check into savings.
> >  3. Owe dentist $bbb.
> >  4. Need to make $ccc monthly payments from checking acct until debt is paid
> >     off.
> >  5. I'm using the inheritance money that's in the savings acct, therefore I
> >     need to first transfer the money from my savings acct to my checking
> >     acct.  Then I write a check to the dentist.
> >
> > This is what I do in GnuCash:
> > Accounts to set up:
> >
> >   * Assets:Bank:Checking
> >   * Assets:Bank:Checking:Healthcare:Dental
> 
> You don't need this account unless you're budgeting for Dental expenses.
> 
> >   * Assets:Bank:Savings
> >   * Assets:Bank:Savings:Inheritance
> 
> You don't need this account unless you're trying to track how much of
> your Inheritance you have left.
> 
> >   * Income:Inheritance
> >   * Expenses:Healthcare:Dental
> >   * Liabilities:Dentist
> >
> >  1. Enter $aaa deposit in the Assets:Bank:Savings register to transfer from
> >     Income:Inheritance to Asset:Bank:Savings:Inheritance (I can enter this
> >     transaction using either the Income:Inheritance register or the
> >     Asset:Bank:Savings register)
> 
> This can just be I:Inheritance -> A:B:Savings (unless you're trying to
> track your inheritance balance).
> 
> >  2. Enter $bbb in Equity:Opening Balances register to transfer $bbb from
> >     Equity:Opening Balances to Liabilities:Dentist.  This creates the account
> >     to show how much I owe the dentist.
> 
> This is wrong.  You should never use an Opening Balance unless the
> balance existed prior to your starting to use GnuCash.  Once you start,
> you should never use the Opening Balance account ever again.  This
> should be a transfer from L:Dentist -> Ex:H:Dental
> 
> >  3. Enter $ccc withdrawal in the Assets:Bank:Savings register to transfer from
> >     Assets:Bank:Savings:Inheritance to Assets:Bank:Checking:Healthcare:Dental
> >     (this action will decrease my savings acct balance by $ccc and increase my
> >     checking acct balance by $ccc)
> 
> Again, no need for the subaccounts here.  You can just do directly from
> A:B:Savings -> A:B:Checking.  In particular, unless you are specifically
> budgeting for future Dental expenses there is no need for the subaccount.
> 
> >  4. Enter check withdrawal of the amount of $ccc from Assets:Bank:Checking to
> >     transfer $ccc from Assets:Bank:Checking:Healthcare:Dental to
> >     Expenses:Healthcare:Dental
> 
> This is completely wrong.  At this point you are paying down the
> Liability that you incurred in step 2 (when you went to the dentist).
> So it's just a transfer from A:B:Checking -> L:Dentist.
> 
> >  5. Now I'm stuck with how to decrease Liabilities:Dentist account.  Where did
> >     I go wrong?
> 
> See above.
> 
> > Thanks for your help!
> >
> > Wayne
> 
> -derek
> 
> -- 
>        Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
>        Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
>        URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
>        warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available
 		 	   		  


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