A way of managing a joint account

[Colin Law]

On 2 September 2013 14:41, Mark Hanford <mark at hanfordonline.co.uk> wrote:
> Greetings, all. I have recently started using GnuCash for my personal
> accounts, and think I have everything mostly ticking over nicely. I do have
> one area though that's stopping me from ditching my spreadsheet-based
> approach at the moment, and that is to do with handling a joint Credit Card
> I have with my partner.
>
> Due to the perks of the account, we use the CC for all our joint
> expenditures (groceries, furniture, whatever) but also for various
> 'personal' things to increase the cash-back.
>
> On my spreadsheet I simply list all the transactions and put a code next to
> each line for either MH (me), LT (partner) or J (joint). I can then simply
> SUMIF all the transactions for the three codes, giving me the amounts we
> have to pay each month. I pay (MH+(0.5*J)) and Lou pays (LT+(0.5*J))
>
> Reconciliation is simple, as the transaction match the statements, and I
> can still get spending breakdowns by payee.
>
> I can't work out how to reproduce this in GC though. I've tried having a
> sort of placeholder account for "Credit Card", and below that three
> accounts for MH, LT and J. I then import the statement into "Credit Card"
> and go through and charge all the entries to one of those sub-accounts.
>
> Trouble with this is that I lose the 'categorisation' I get from my normal
> accounts where I can charge things to Expenses:Groceries or Ex:Hobbies or
> whatever.

I don't understand what you mean.  A transaction might be, for example
$45 out of Credit Card:MH and into Expenses:Groceries.

Colin