Travel Expense Advice...

[David Reiser]

On Dec 31, 2010, at 2:06 PM, Alan Anderson wrote:

> 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

As long as it is just another categorization for you, you could add a tag in the Action field. Then when you want to see those transactions, just search for all Actions = to whatever your tag is.  

If there is some reimbursement involved, I use a BusinessTravel asset account to hold the splits for which I'll be reimbursed. That way I can just transfer money from that asset to my checking account when I get reimbursed rather than have to find a way to reconcile a bunch of scattered splits with offsetting transactions. This plan does interfere with the concept of finding out how much money was spent on gas for my car regardless of who paid for it (but then I have a separate mileage tracker for gas purchases and car maintenance).

By the way, you question seems to fit exactly the discussion on the mailing list recently about implementing Categories/Tags (Categories is the term Quicken uses to describe the use of additional categorization of transactions beyond accounts associated with the cash flow). While it isn't implemented in gnucash yet, there seems to be enough interest in it that someone might do the programming in the foreseeable future.

Dave
--
David Reiser
dbreiser at earthlink.net