Classifications or TAGS

Manfred Usselmann usselmann.m at icg-online.de
Wed Dec 22 03:31:16 EST 2010 

Hi,

On Tue, 21 Dec 2010 11:51:04 -0800 (PST)
Phil Longstaff <plongstaff at rogers.com> wrote:

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

Although tags / attributes or however you call it would make that
probably easier, it should also be noted that GnuCash report options
allow to select individual subaccounts for reports.

But it is currently not possible to select individual transactions or
splits for reports. You would need to move them to different
subaccounts first.   

 
> 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.  

But you could select the different gas subaccounts
(Expenses:Auto:2010BMW:Gas, Expenses:Auto:2008Civic:Gas) for a report
once and save that report. This is probably easier than tagging every
individual gas expense. And less error-prone.

But I can also imagine that a TAG feature may still be useful for
certain use cases.

Manfred



> ________________________________
> 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
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > gnucash-user mailing list
> > gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> > -----
> > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > gnucash-user mailing list
> > gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> > -----
> > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
> >
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> -----
> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.


-- 
Manfred Usselmann <usselmann.m at icg-online.de>
ICG IT Consulting GmbH, Kelkheim

More information about the gnucash-user mailing list