How to set up hierarchy for accounts? What is better?

[Robin Chattopadhyay]

On Sun, Mar 20, 2011 at 3:40 PM, FireFly <fireflys_98 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I could easily organize all my asset accounts under bank names, I don't
> because to me it doesn't matter how much I have in one individual bank, it's
> the collective set of checking accounts, or savings accounts that matter to
> me, someone else may be far more interested in knowing how much they have in
> holdings at a particular institution vs how much they have in savings
> accounts overall, it's all personal preference.
>
>
>
I agree. For me, it's more important to have my accounts organized
'logically' as opposed to 'physically'. This means grouping like accounts
(cash accounts, checking/savings, taxable investments, retirement
investments, education investments, fixed assets).  I have the bank
information in the Description field for the account so a physical grouping
isn't as important to me.

In fact, when I transferred an IRA from one custodian to another, there were
no corresponding journal entries because the Description for the account was
the only piece of information in Gnucash that required updating.

One time that I can think that it would become important to keep track of
your assets by physical location is if you need to be concerned about
insurance coverage (FDIC, NCUA in the United States, Financial Services
Compensation Scheme in the UK) and you need to know how much you're holding
at any given depository institution.

Robin