Can GNU Cash keep track of expenses of multiple businesses?

Shane Litherland litherland-farm at bigpond.com
Wed Feb 1 20:55:05 EST 2012


Yves, I would have to defer that question to others more
knowledgeable... there might be a way to import accounts, if you maybe
you could periodically/temporarily import all three into one file to do
an overall report?

or, as I occasionally do, run a report for each bit that gives you some
figures, copy them to a spreadsheet and sum/ analyse further there.
But that is very stone-age.

If they were three account trees in one file then that kind of overall
reporting would probably be easier..?

I'll be interested to see what others suggest too.

Not sure if different backends (xml, postgres, sqlite etc) would affect
your options.

-shane

On Wed, 2012-02-01 at 10:55 -0500, Yves S. Garret wrote:
> Yes, I know that there are legal questions that are beyond the scope
> of this mail thread, but that is not my goal in having started this
> discussion :-) .
> 
> 
> Now, if I have 3 files in GnuCash, for the sake of keeping the powers
> that be content (and off my tail), I'm someone that likes the big
> picture.  Could I combine the output/results/content/data from 3 of
> those files in some other location?  So that I know -- for the sake of
> an example -- I have $3,000 coming in and $2,500 being spent.
> 
> On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 8:37 AM, Shane Litherland
> <litherland-farm at bigpond.com> wrote:
>         Yves,
>         
>         so, from your end, having three top-level accounts in one
>         gnucash file
>         might actually be easier to use..
>         
>         from the authorities' perspective, having them as three
>         separate files
>         would be much easier to demonstrate they are separate and
>         independent.
>         
>         I reckon I'd be doing it the slightly harder way for myself,
>         so I can
>         sleep easier at night ;-)
>         
>         Also given your setup, chances are they'd have little in the
>         way of txns
>         between them for you to benefit from the former 'shortcut'..
>         unless you
>         intend to do 'hand-me-down' furniture and have to deal with
>         capital
>         depreciations/write-offs etc.. ;-)
>         
>         -shane.
>         
>         On Wed, 2012-02-01 at 05:41 -0500, Yves S. Garret wrote:
>         > The only reason why I want to do this is because if I buy
>         apartments and rent them out and I put them as being ownedby
>         its own LLC and -- God forbid -- I get sued, my losses will be
>         contained to only that LLC and house.
>         >
>         > On Jan 31, 2012, at 11:35 PM, Shane Litherland
>         <litherland-farm at bigpond.com> wrote:
>         >
>         > > Hi Yves,
>         > >
>         > > As per Derek's comment, but there is another way to view
>         the scenario:
>         > >
>         > > One GNUcash file, with three top-level accounts (one for
>         each business).
>         > >
>         > > This would NOT be the recommended setup for business
>         reasons, some would
>         > > argue there is more transparency/independence in records
>         in having three
>         > > separate files.
>         > >
>         > > HOWEVER, there have been comments over the time though in
>         the GNUcash
>         > > forums where some people have favoured this way for
>         multiple
>         > > 'businesses' (or e.g. three separate accounts for three
>         individuals in a
>         > > household) because they found the amount of 'internal'
>         txns between said
>         > > business units meant having them within one gnucash file
>         was easier for
>         > > them to enter/record txns, rather than having to record
>         any 'transfer'
>         > > as an expense from one then go and record that same amount
>         as an income
>         > > in the other.
>         > >
>         > > It is in a very rough comparison, like having three
>         separate spreadsheet
>         > > documents or one spreadsheet document with three pages.
>         Both ways record
>         > > the same stuff. but moving info around involves subtly
>         different
>         > > processes.
>         > >
>         > > Besides, if you have three separate files, it stops anyone
>         that should
>         > > only access one of them from viewing/breaking/tampering
>         with stuff that
>         > > they shouldn't!
>         > >
>         > > PS if you are setting up three accts from scratch and they
>         have a
>         > > similar acct structure, you might be able to set up one,
>         then save a
>         > > copy or create a new one that inherits the same acct tree
>         layout...
>         > > you'd have to read up the gnucash info/tips on that but it
>         could be
>         > > handy??
>         > >
>         > > -shane.
>         > >
>         
>         
>         
> 
> 




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