personal and business

[Dave T]

Hi Derek,
Thanks for your clear description. That's exactly the thing I want to avoid.
Using MS Money Personal & Business allowed me to avoid that double work and
I am hopeful to find an equally efficient solution that involves GnuCash.
Shane's reply seems to point me in the right direction... I'm designing a
chart of accounts now (although my lack of experience doing such things is
giving rise to a lot of questions and I'm not able to refer to the standard
recommendations).
Regards,
Dave

On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 9:24 AM, Derek Atkins <warlord at mit.edu> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Dave T <dave at davestechshop.net> writes:
>
> > Hi. I'm new to GnuCash. I am going to combine all of my accounts in one
> file
> > - business and personal. I'm looking for suggestions from those who have
> > done this. (I am not looking for advice about why it isn't a good idea to
> do
> > this.)
> >
> > My alternatives, other than GnuCash, are to either use MoneyDance or
> Quicken
> > Home and Business. (I previously used MS Money Personal & Business.) I
> plan
> > to use GnuCash now, but I plan to adapt it to the combined personal and
> > business style that I prefer (even though I know there are valid reasons
> for
> > not doing this).
> >
> > If anyone else is combining business and personal accounts in one file, I
> > welcome suggestions about how to best set up the chart of accounts and
> any
> > other tips. I'm looking for replies from people who have figured out the
> > best way to make this combined approach work with GnuCash.
>
> For what it's worth, I keep separate books for personal and business.
> When I make a business purchase using my personal card I make a
> transaction from CCard -> Assets:Business Expenses.  Then when the
> business pays me back I transfer that back to my checking account:
> A:Business Expenses -> A:Checking
>
> On the business side I would use an employee expense voucher for this,
> which is effectively A/P -> Expense and then Checking -> AP.
>
> So yes, you need to double book these transactions.
>
> Just note that a reimbursible business expense is NOT an "Expense" to
> you.
>
> > Thanks
>
> > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>
> -derek
>
> --
>       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
>       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
>       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
>       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available
>