Tracking Money in Savings Account

[Ian X Waddington]

Dennis, thank you

Unless I'm misunderstanding your approach is assuming I actually spend the
money from A:S:M whereas in fact it is a transaction on my credit card
against an expense item say Leisure:ConcerntTickets.

I will settle my credit card by direct debit from my current account and may
never actually withdrawal money from savings to buy the tickets.

If I were able to add a 'reporting 'item (Classification in MS-Money) to
these transactions I would know I'd used my credit card to buy concert
tickets and I'd also be able to run a report that said I'd spent £100 of the
£500 received as gift.

Seems so much simpler to me.

Ian



-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Brakhane [mailto:brakhane at googlemail.com] On Behalf Of Dennis
Brakhane
Sent: 17 December 2010 11:59
To: Ian X Waddington
Cc: 'Gnucash User'
Subject: Re: Tracking Money in Savings Account

Am 17.12.2010 08:38, schrieb Ian X Waddington:
> * Tracking Source Income
> I have been using the 'classification and sub-classification' feature 
> to track source income against spending.
> 
> The generous gift is added to my savings account but classed as 
> Source:UncleTom
> 
> Whenever I buy something using this money, usually something as a 
> treat I would not normally buy, I classify it against Source:UncleTom.  
> It does not matter what money I actually spend, whether it be credit 
> or debit card or good old fashion cash if I run a report of 
> Source:UncleTom I can see exactly how much I received and how much I 
> have left and most importantly I get a list of each transaction so I 
> can see exactly what I've purchased and where and when. I've been 
> doing this for years to track Source Income, DIY projects, holiday
spending, Christmas spending and even business expenses.
> 
> The ability to add additional reportable information to a transaction 
> is just invaluable.

You can do these things in GC easily. Suppose the money from Uncle Tom went
into your savings account. If you want to specifically track this money, you
can create a subaccount of your savings account
Assets:Savings:MoneyFromUncleTom. You would book the initial gift as
Income:Gifts -> Assets:Savings:MoneyFromUncleTom.

Whenever you buy something that should be regarded as coming from Tom's
money, you book the transaction as A:S:M -> Expenses:Whatever instead of A:S
-> Expenses:Whatever.

You just have to be aware that the Balance shown in the A:S account is not
the same balance your bank shows, as the money from Tom is in another
Account in GC. However, in the Accounts page, you will always see the
complete amount for A:S, as A:S:M is a subaccount. Just remember to mark
"Include Subaccounts" when reconciling your A:S account. If you do this, the
total during reconciliation will match your bank's statement.