Managing U.S. Flexible Spending Accounts

[Thomas Scofield]

I am a new user of GnuCash, and someone who has not had an accounting  
course of any kind.  (On the other hand, I am a mathematician, and the  
basics of double-entry accounting seem fairly intuitive if I can ever  
get the principle behind the labels "credit" and "debit".)  I have  
searched the archives for advice about setting up flexible spending  
accounts, and have only come across the post by John R. Carter on Jan.  
5, 2009.  It is with that post in mind I am posing my question.

I have created accounts
   Liabilities:FSA
   Equity:FSA
after which I entered a transaction in Liabilities:FSA placing my  
year's allotment in the "Increase" column.  (The transfer account is  
Equity:FSA, where now the same amount appears in the "Decrease" column.)

I am now at the point of entering a paycheck.  I placed the full  
amount in the "Income" column of a an "Income:Salary" transaction, and  
split the transfer account.  It is split many ways, as I am sending  
some to several different bank accounts, some to a "Expenses:social  
security" account, some to "Expenses:medicare", etc.  One of the  
accounts in the transfer split is "Expenses:FLEX".  Now, if I follow  
the advice of Mr. Carter, an entry in "Expenses:FLEX" would have its  
"double" appear in "Equity:FSA", decreasing the amount there from the  
initial FLEX allotment.  That makes sense to me, but it also makes  
sense that I should have it mirror what came out of my paycheck, and  
you (of course) cannot do both.  Any suggestions as to a sensible  
approach?

Thomas L. Scofield
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Associate Professor
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Calvin College
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