Advice please - How do I?

Lincoln A Baxter lab at lincolnbaxter.com
Sat Nov 20 09:49:58 EST 2010


It would appear that in MS Money you are modeling assets and liabilities
transactions as categories.  (This is not how it works in Double entry
accounting practice, which is what GC implements.

In GC (and double entry accounting) when you buy the "Sonic" for your
child you are making a loan to the child.  When you are the lender you
have an asset in the amount you have lent.  Therefore, if you used a
Credit Card to buy the "Sonic", the transaction(s) would look like this:

Purchase  

	Liabilities:CreditCard:   Sonic   9.90 (Charge)

This increases your liability to the Credit Card Company by 9.90, and
should be balanced by an entry in:

	Assets:OwedToMe:Child1:   Sonic   9.90 (Increase)

This is the loan to Child1

When your child pays you back the transaction looks like this:

	Assets:OwedToMe:Child1   Sonic repay   9.90 (Decrease) 

Which is balanced by:

	Assets:CashInWallet   9.90 (Increase)

If you look at the the account Assets:OwedToMe:Child1, you will see the
data you were trying to capture in the reports you ran in MS Money.

Note that you still owe the Credit Card 9.90 (which you is paid when you
transfered from Assets:Checking to the Liabilities:CreditCard.

You could have deposited the 9.90 from your wallet to the checking
account (another asset transfer) and then payed 9.90 the credit card
company, if you wanted to close the loop with the original purchase
(showing the same amounts all the way through),  but you probably just
didn't transfer as much or as soon to your wallet the next time you
needed cash.  

Lincoln


On Sat, 2010-11-20 at 10:31 +0000, Ian X Waddington wrote:
> Hi
> 
> As part of my getting to know GNUCash sessions before switching from
> MS-Money I am trying to address the following Class question. Any help or
> advice appreciated.
> 
> A typical MS-Money transaction might be
> 
> Date: 10/11/2010
> 
> Type : Charge
> 
> Account: Visa
> 
> Category: Computer
> 
> Subcategory: Software
> 
> Class: Child1
> 
> Amount: £9.99
> 
> Note: Sonic for PC
> 
> At this point if I run a transaction report for Class = Child1 I can easily
> see that Child1 owes me £9.99
> 
> Then, when child1 repays the £9.99 they owe, I enter
> 
> Date:20/11/2010
> 
> Type : Receive
> 
> Account: Cash in pocket
> 
> Category: Computer
> 
> Subcategory: Software
> 
> Class: Child1
> 
> Amount: £9.99
> 
> Note: Sonic for PC
> 
>  
> 
> Now when I run the same report again (Class = Child1) I can easily see both
> the above transactions with a balance of £0.00. Child1 does not owe me any
> more money.
> 
> In addition to the above, I can also see what money has been spent on
> Computer:Software and I can easily see that the amount I have personally
> spent is £0.00.
> 
> I am looking for advice and suggestions as to how I might reproduce the
> above approach in GNUCash.
> 
> Thank you for your help
> 
> Ian
> 
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