Educational loan spent on nothing?

[Robert Heller]

At Sat, 16 Oct 2010 21:33:19 +0200 =?ISO-8859-2?Q?Pawe=B3_Zaj=B1c?= <pavzaj at gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> Hello,
> I've started using gnucash about 6 months ago. I have taken educational loan
> during my studies and spent it all before I've started using gnucash. But
> soon I need to start paying my loan off. This loan is not yet recorded in
> gnucash, but I can't omit it in my personal finances. However if I record
> this loan there would be no purchase transactions to balance it. What can I
> do with this issue?

Presumably, you know the total amount of the loan, so you enter that
against a 'dummy' 'expense' account: "Past Educational Expenses".  You
can probably just enter the total amount as a lumpsum, since at this
point you might not have any reason to itemize what you spent the loan
on (books, tuition, room&board, lab fees, etc.).  This would leave
you with a loan with a balance due (which is what you want).  The "Past
Educational Expenses" will just be there.  I expect you can back date
this expense and/or exclude it from current period expense reports.  As
you make payments (and presumably get charged interest and fees), you
would then enter splits (eg payment from Checking, interest and fees
charged to a suitable account, etc.).  Eventually, the balance due will
reach zero (time for a party?).

> 
> Regards
> Paweł Zając
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-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933 / heller at deepsoft.com
Deepwoods Software        -- http://www.deepsoft.com/
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