Educational loan spent on nothing?

[Paweł Zając]

Thank you all for quick answers. I'll use some combination of your
proposals.

Regards
Paweł

2010/10/16 Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com>

> 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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