How to do Project accounting with GC

[Derrick Hudson]

"Manfred Jung" <mjung at ccm.org.za> wrote:

>We have the pleasure in our non profit organisation to do projects which 
>have their own income and expenses like a conference.
>
>We would like to use GnuCash for all this. But I am not quite sure where 
>to put the accounts.

I have a similar situation myself.  My approach is to create a
separate GnuCash file and set of accounts for the project.  This works
particularly well for me because I don't track all of the books.  I
then report the receipts and expenses of the project and any net
balance (positive or negative) from this separate file.

>I can not put the conference account under income or expenses since 
>these are really not moneys received or spend for our organisation. 
>nevertheless these moneys travel in and out of our bank account.

Right.  As I understand it, our bookkeeper simply has a liability
account for the project and doesn't track the details.  (I track the
details in my own records).  Funds received are debited (deposited) to
the bank account and credited (increasing) the liabilty.  This is
because the organization owes the project.  Expenses for the project
are credited (withdrawn) from the bank account and debited
(decreasing) the liability because when funds are paid, the org no
longer owes it to the project.

>Where would one place a Suspense account in GnuCash. And how does one do 
>income and expenses with a suspense account.
>
>Sorry if this question is just too simple. Please bear with me as this 
>accounting thing is still very new to me.

I recommend taking an introductory accounting class at a local
community college.  It really helped me.

-Derrick