Guidance for situation that I've got

[Tommy Trussell]

On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 12:53 AM, Peter Boosten <peter at boosten.org> wrote:
>
> On 17 dec 2010, at 00:25, FireFly wrote:
>
>> On occasion, my wallet is empty, and i keep some of the cash, so I have
>>
>> Assets:Account1 -$200
>> Assets:Account2 +$100
>> Expenses:Miscellaneous +$100
>
>
>
> I think you're making a mistake here, since your wallet is to be treated as an asset as well (you didn't spend it yet, and as such it's no expense).
>
> In my case it would look like:
>
> Assets:Account1 -$200
> Assets:Account2 +$100
> Assets:Wallet +$100
>
> Then if I went to a store and paid cash, then it would look like:
>
> Asset:Wallet -$40
> Expenses:Grocery: +$40
>
> But of course you would have to keep track of anything that goes out (or into) your wallet.
>

I have a GnuCash account called Assets:Current Assets:Cash in Wallet
(I don't know if it is part of the standard account tree that GnuCash
set up, but I believe it is close.)

I TRY to keep up with cash expenditures, but miss a lot. Every few
months I balance the Cash In Wallet account (I use the small amount
that is usually in the wallet at any time as the ending balance) and
my "correcting" transaction goes into Expenses:Miscellaneous.

SO when I look at my accounts at the end of the month or year, the
amount going into Expenses:Miscellaneous represents the total of the
amounts I did not adequately track. Hopefully it is small and
represents only the occasional pack of gum or whatever, but since I
keep track of spending for the whole household I usually don't have
any idea where a lot of the money went.

Fortunately it IS a reasonable procedure to use when you don't want to
track everything. It's also handy to categorize those things you DO
want to track, such as giving 20 in cash to so-and-so as a gift or
charity or a loan or whatever. Then when they ask for more you can go
back to remember the previous amount, or you can report it on your
taxes, or whatever. And if it was a loan, you can properly account for
it when/if they repay you.


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