personal and business

[Jason Dunham]

Dave:
Saving a few duplicated transactions doesn't seem like a good enough reason
to conflate your business and personal accounts.  If you ever get into a
mess with your local taxing authorities, or that your business grows such
that you'll need an accountant (hope so!) or that you become incapacitated
and your family and/or a court has to hire help to unwind your books, then
in all those cases, it will be more trouble and expense if you are combining
your books.

I am not an accountant (disclaimer!), but I never met one that thought it
was a good idea to combine your books like that.

Regards,
Jason



> From: Dave T <dave at davestechshop.net>
> Subject: Re: personal and business
> To: Derek Atkins <warlord at mit.edu>
> Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>
> 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
> >
>