Travel Expense Advice...

[Alan Anderson]

I'm looking for the best way to deal with transactions that have multiple
purposes.  For example, I recently traveled for work, and I collected a ton
of receipts for gas, food, and groceries.  I want to enter them as I
normally would--in both A:Checking and E:Auto:Gas, etc.  But, I also want to
be able to pull out those specific transactions as having been part of that
specific trip, so that I can itemize those expenses separately.  My initial
though was that I'd create a new account for that trip, e.g. E:Travel:Fall
2010, and I would enter the transaction in the Checking register using that
account.  Then I'd have to go into the register for E:Travel:Fall 2010 and
balance out those transactions by adding another transaction that subtracts
it from the E:Travel:Fall 2010 account and then puts it in the appropriate
expense account, e.g. E:Auto:Gas.

I've tried a couple of test entries, and it appears to do what I want--at
initial glance.  However, it seems a little tedious.  Is there a better way
to do this?  I also tried simply balancing the transaction in a split
transaction when I initially enter it.  For example, the split transaction
in the A:Checking register would have
   A:Checking =                     -$10.00,
   E:Auto:Gas = $10.00,
   E:Travel:Fall 2010 =            -$10.00,
   E:Travel:Fall 2010 = $10.00.

This eliminates some of the entry error because it's all done at once, but
it's still a little tedious.  Is there any way to make a template for this
split transaction, so that I only have to change the amount?

How do most people deal with these types of tracking issues?  What are the
"best practices" for tracking travel expenses?

Thanks in advance from a non-accounting person.

Al