Record income/ expense from side gig

[davelist at mac.com]

> On Aug 21, 2016, at 2:59 AM, Colin Law <clanlaw at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On 20 Aug 2016 10:47 p.m., "Chris Henderson" <henders254 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> I was wondering what's the best way to record income/ expense from side
> gig.
>> 
>> Should I simply create Income:sidegig and Expense:sidegig or is there any
>> other better way to do this.
> 
> Another alternative is to decide whether, for you, sidegig is principally
> an income or an expense and then have just one account of the appropriate
> type and record transactions as debit or credit as appropriate. Then the
> account will show the net income or expense. It is up to you to decide
> which way best fits your needs.
> 
> Colin

Chris,

I would probably go the route you suggested for your personal books but then I would also create a separate gnucash file just for this side-gig as you may need to file tax returns separately for it (for example, if you live in the U.S., you would likely need to file a schedule C for it). Having a separate gnucash file for it will make that much easier. And if the side-gig grows, you can continue to add more expense categories to it (while just keeping the single income and single expense category in your personal account) so you can more accurately track them and make it easier to report on your taxes.

HTH,
Dave