Classifications or TAGS

Keith Bellairs keith at bellairs.org
Tue Dec 21 18:05:01 EST 2010 

This reminds me of what they are calling "activity based" accounting in the
ERP world these days. Driving your BMW is an activity that you want to be
able to aggregate costs on so you can compare it to the cost of driving your
Ferrari (or whatever). It is indeed a dimension that is independent of
expense accounts.

On Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 5:47 PM, Ian X Waddington <iwaddox at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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