Can a lawyer's trust account be adequately managed from the same gnucash file as the rest of their accounting?

[Liz]

On Wed, 30 Dec 2015 21:59:21 -0500
Macho Philipovich <macho at resist.ca> wrote:

>  1. Is it feasible to store the trust account information in the same
>     gnucash file as the rest of the accounting information? Does this,
>     e.g., allow generating adequate and appropriate reports?
>  2. If the answer to the first question is no, and two separate files
>     are needed, is there any way to alleviate the inconvenience of
>     managing two separate-yet-closely-related accounting files? The
> two main annoyances are, first, that GNUcash doesn't seem to be able
> to have more than one file open at once and, second, that managing two
>     separate files requires needless duplication of effort and inserts
>     the potential for error. For example, transferring money from the
>     trust account to the business account requires recording the same
>     transaction twice, in separate files, which can't be viewed
>     simultaneously.
> 
> I'm brand new both to GNUcash and to basic accounting principles more 
> broadly, so I'm open to having completely misunderstood any number of 
> basic principles.
> 
> I'd love to hear from any of you with thoughts on the question.

Your mail client doesn't identify itself in the headers, so I can't
work out which operating system you are using.

1. Use separate files for separate accounts.
2. I can have all my separate files (4 of them) open at once on my
Debian install, and I have menu entries for them which make this easy.
As John Ralls hinted, this is not easy on a Mac. 

3. I can then balance certain accounts against each other and ensure
that the accountants don't cost me too much at the end of the financial
year. For example, money I loan to the main business when I purchase on
a credit card is entered in personal books with the credit card and in
the business account.

Liz