Managing U.S. Flexible Spending Accounts

[brad]

In addition to what Fred said ...  
I wouldn't put a transaction for the yrs allotment.  For every paycheck
you put some in the Asset:FSA account.   When you get reimbursed for an
expense there would be a transaction which would reduce the balance in
the Asset:FSA account and also increase the balance in your bank
account.  So I don't think you need expenses:FLEX, or liabilities:FSA,
and replace equity:FSA with asset:FSA.   

Of course if you get to the deadline and lose the money because you
didn't spend enuf, then you would need to expense it somehow. Stupid
system ...


On Mon, 2010-01-04 at 15:55 -0500, Fred Frigerio wrote:
> I would probably have an Asset:FSA only. Then divert money into it from
> either a Paycheck Split or from a different Asset account (Money Market,
> Checking, etc) as you make deposits into it. The only use a regular person
> would have for the Equity account would be when closing the year to 'move'
> the difference between Income and Liabilities accounts to zero them out.
> 
> Fred Frigerio
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 2:51 PM, Thomas Scofield <scofield at calvin.edu> wrote:
> 
> >
> > 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
> > --------------------------------------------------------
> > Associate Professor
> > Department of Mathematics and Statistics
> > Calvin College
> > --------------------------------------------------------
> >
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