Classifications or TAGS

Tue Dec 21 17:47:10 EST 2010

Hi

A draft document which could be used as the basis of a specification for
adding Classifications to GnuCash can be found here
<http://www.waddo.co.uk/uploads/New%20Feature%20Specification%20GnuCash%20Cl
assifications%20v0.1.pdf> .

I welcome any feedback

Regards

Ian

From: Phil Longstaff [mailto:plongstaff at rogers.com] 
Sent: 21 December 2010 19:51
To: clavenrn at onepost.net; Ian X Waddington
Cc: clanlaw at googlemail.com; gnucash-user at gnucash.org
Subject: Re: Classifications or TAGS

The problem comes more when I want to combine information from different
accounts in order to try to answer questions.

What did each of my cars cost me last year?  Maybe I should consider selling
the oldest one and get a new one.
What was my total repair cost?  Maybe I should look for a cheaper mechanic.

In the first case, I want to know total cost by vehicle.  In the second, I
want total cost by expense type.  If I use what I suggested, I can easily
get total gas cost, but it's harder to find total vehicle cost because I
need to add accounts from different sub-hierarchies.  If I use what you
suggest, it's easier to get total vehicle costs but harder to get total gas
costs because I need to add accounts from different sub-hierarchies.  It's
only by having a split tag which is orthogonal to the current one (account
name) that I can easily sum along either dimension.

Phil
---------
I used to be a hypochondriac AND a kleptomaniac. So I took something for it.

  _____  

From: Dennis Powless <claven123 at gmail.com>
To: Ian X Waddington <iwaddox at gmail.com>
Cc: Phil Longstaff <plongstaff at rogers.com>; clanlaw at googlemail.com;
gnucash-user at gnucash.org
Sent: Tue, December 21, 2010 2:37:17 PM
Subject: Re: Classifications or TAGS

Could you not do the same thing with a higher level of account.

ie

Expenses:Auto:2010BMW:Gas
Expenses:Auto:2010BMW:Maintenance
Expenses:Auto:2010BMW:Parts

Expenses:Auto:2008Civic:Gas
Expenses:Auto:2008Civic:Maintenance
Expenses:Auto:2008Civic:Parts

etc....

Dennis

On Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 1:44 PM, Ian X Waddington <iwaddox at gmail.com> wrote:
> Phil
>
>
>
> This the same as MS-Money so I think you will recognise the specification
I
> am writing up.
>
>
>
> Ian
>
>
>
> From: Phil Longstaff [mailto:plongstaff at rogers.com]
> Sent: 21 December 2010 18:23
> To: Ian X Waddington; clanlaw at googlemail.com
> Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Subject: Re: Classifications or TAGS
>
>
>
> In Quicken, classes allow another way of aggregating or marking a split in
a
> way which is orthogonal to the account.
>
> Using cars as an example, I might have classes "2010BMW" and "2008Civic".
A
> transaction involving gas would be:
>
> Bank           $50.00CR
>   Expenses:Auto:Gas/2010BMW     $50.00DB
>
> or
>
> Liabilities:VISA    $60.00CR
>   Expenses:Auto:Maintenance/2008Civic       $60.00DB
>
> A summary report could be generated for a time period:
>
>                                        2010BMW            2008Civic
> Expenses:Auto:Gas               $50.00                   $0.00
> Expenses:Auto:Maintenance    $0.00                  $60.00
>
> I currently use sub-accounts for each account (Expenses:Auto:Gas:2010BMW
and
> Expenses:Auto:Gas:2008Civic, and same for maintenance), but there is no
way
> to provide the tabular report Quicken could.
>
> Another example of classes would be if I own rental properties, in which
> case both rental income and expenses can have class assigned to splits.
>
> Different accounting programs handle this idea in different ways.  With
> Quicken, any split could have "accountName/className" instead of just
> "accountName".  With a larger accounting system I've used, each account
had
> a number and the number was split into segments.  Each segment had numeric
> codes.  Given N segments, the account number space was then an
N-dimensional
> cube, so for a college, for example, they could have segments for
> expenseType/department/building if they wanted and could track supplies
for
> the English Department in the ABC building.  In this case, the account
> number might be 410-10-25 where 410=supplies, 10=English Dept and 25=ABC
> building.  In most cases, 00 was "general" or "not tracked" so they might
> have 410-10-00 if they don't care about the building.  However, if they
try
> to allocate heating costs to the departments, they might have 420-10-25.
> Quicken's use of classes is essentially the same as this, where N=2.  For
> personal or small business use, I can't see more than N=2 being required.
>
>
>
> Phil
> ---------
> I used to be a hypochondriac AND a kleptomaniac. So I took something for
it.
>
>
>
>
>
>  _____
>
> From: Ian X Waddington <iwaddox at gmail.com>
> To: clanlaw at googlemail.com
> Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Sent: Tue, December 21, 2010 11:08:28 AM
> Subject: RE: Classifications or TAGS
>
> Colin
>
> Sorry but I have never used Quicken.  Can you point me towards some
> reference material or better still a link to the Quicken manual that
> describes what you are looking for.
>
> Current references and acknowledgements are
>
> http://community.kde.org/KMyMoney/Features/Tags  -In short, tagging is
meant
> to group different categories together in case when some of the
transactions
> in the category doesn't logically belong together.  Even if memos can be
> used to accomplish this same goal, they aren't designed for this kind of
> functionality and since they aren't very convenient to use.
>
> MS-Money help file - You can use classifications and subclassifications to
> organise your finances in more detail. In Money, you can designate two
types
> of classifications. For example, if you set up a classification for your
> properties, within that classification you can assign transactions to
> Property 1, Property 2, and so on. You can then set up a second
> classification for your family members in order to assign transactions to
> yourself, your spouse, and your child.
>
> Ian
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Colin Law [mailto:clanlaw at googlemail.com]
> Sent: 21 December 2010 15:59
> To: Ian X Waddington
> Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Subject: Re: Classifications or TAGS
>
> On 21 December 2010 15:40, Ian X Waddington <iwaddox at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Just in case anyone has embarked on the same idea I just wanted to let
>> interested parties know I have started drafting out requirements for
>> adding Classifications or TAGS to GnuCash.
>
> Will that be similar to Classes in Quicken?
>
> Colin
>
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