New user - do I need to set up my personal accounts as a business?

[Buddha Buck]

GnuCash allows you to create new accounts and delete unused ones at any
time, which is necessary to customize your chart of accounts as you need.
The various options given upon initial startup with a new GnuCash file
merely creates a set of "default" accounts, which can be used to begin your
customization.

It is unlikely that, for your situation, either of the "full set of
business accounts" or the "standard personal setup" will be exactly what
you need. Which you choose depends on which you feel is closest, and
whether you feel like adding new accounts or deleting old accounts more to
match your needs.

Looking over your scenario, I would consider setting up a second GnuCash
file to deal with the informal property venture. Dealing with inter-partner
loans, payments, property bills, etc in your own personal books sounds like
a mess. Yes, it'll mean entering any transaction involving you twice (once
in your books, once in the property ventures books), but it'll help enforce
the separation of concerns. After all, you have such issues like a loan
from the property venture to you looks like an asset to the property
venture and a liability to you, and keeping that clear in one book holding
both sides is not obvious.


On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 2:36 PM slpaul <spauldxb at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi
> I've been through the guide and forums but I'm still not sure how best to
> set up my accounts. Any help would be appreciated.
>
> I've a personal bank account and joint account (shared with wife). The
> joint
> account sometimes receives money from friends/partners (5 other people) in
> an informal property venture, which is then used to pay bills on the
> property. Sometimes I'll pay someone's share of a bill, which I need to
> collect later. I need to record what bills the money has paid, who owes
> what, what bills need paying, etc.
>
> Additionally,I sometimes borrow money from the joint account and/or wife's
> account (and vice versa), which needs to be recorded and repaid.
>
> A full set of business accounts seems overkill (and time consuming) but the
> standard 'personal' setup doesn't seem up to the job (or I'm missing
> something (probably the case)).
>
> Thanks.
>
>
>
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