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

[Mike or Penny Novack]

On 12/30/2015 9:59 PM, Macho Philipovich wrote:
> Hi there.
>
> I'd like to know the best way to manage accounting information for a 
> solo lawyer's trust account using GNUcash.
>
>
> 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. 

How about if we generalize the question? Suppose you were a bookkeeper 
by trade, not for one employer (a large entity) but several smaller 
entities who were your clients (many small entities hire out their 
bookkeeping). You would of course be keeping separate books for each of 
these, yes?

OK, now suppose just by chance, there is a transaction between two of 
the entities for which you were keeping books. From the above you would 
be complaining that you weren't able to have the books for both of them 
open at the same time. But would you be doing that? Wouldn't you be 
working only on the set of books for the client you were billing for 
those hours of work? Not also working on the books of another of your 
clients.

Here the trust is (properly) a separate entity from the law firm. 
Presumably bookkeeping time spent keeping the books for the trust would 
be a chargeable expense for the trust. But time spent keeping the law 
firm's own books not.

And I seriously disagree about the error question. Errors made 
incorrectly entering a transaction affecting just one entity (from the 
paper record) much easier to find and correct than an error made where 
two sets of books open at the same time and you accidentally entered a 
transaction meant for entity one into the books of entity two.

BTW, you COULD have both open at the same time. That is an operating 
system and hardware supporting matter. What you can't have is both open 
in the same session (same log in session). Windows, etc. would require 
you to switch user back and forth (can't quite see both at the same 
time. A 'nix OS with just one machine (and terminal) same thing. But a 
'nix would support multiple simultaneous users. If you had two machines 
side by side, one running everything and the second logged into the 
first by "remote" (it's just acting as a terminal to a session on the 
first) you could see both at the same time.

Michael D Novack