question

[Michael Ferrara]

I have wondered about this too. We have Joshua's schema which includes
Vehicles of subaccounts of major expense categories. Then there is Dave's
schema which includes categories as subaccounts of vehicle expenses.

I am not a database expert, but the two schemes appear to be "inverses" of
each other, correct?

Would it be possible to add a "layer" of asset/liability accounts for the
redundant subaccounts? You could then (I think) run a cash-flow report. For
example:

(Liabilities)
-Subaru
-Ford
-Toyota

(Expenses)
-Maintenance
-Fuel
-Legal
     --Insurance
     --Registration

I list the vehicles as liabilities (credit accounts) because they normally
balance expenses (debit accounts.) (I suppose if the vehicles are used for
business to generate a profit they could be listed as assets instead.)

Does that make sense? Has anyone tried this? (Any RDBM's out there?)

Mike