Pay with Credit Card, split bill from cash with friend, how to reconcile budget?

Bill Chambers wachambers at berkeley.edu
Thu Feb 18 14:00:47 EST 2016


Hey all,

Just started using gnucash a month ago and I love it. I'm tracking down to
the cash in my wallet and loving how easy it is to do!

I'm having a bit of a challenge, here's the scenario (made up but an
accurate reflect):

I have a budget of $200 for going to to eat. I go out to dinner with some 2
friends and we spend $60.
I pick up the tab to make it simple and put it on one credit card while my
friend hands me $20 on the spot and the other one sends me $20 on Venmo.

I log those transactions in new cash. I register the $40 "income > payback
from friend" and those amounts go into "cash on hand" and Venmo
respectively. I log the $60 credit card transaction as "expense > food and
dining".

Here's my question, since I have a budget of $200, that credit card will
show up as $60 meaning that I've already spent more than 25% of my monthly
budget even though I actually haven't. I don't really get a rebate on the
credit card transaction because I still have to pay the same amount to the
credit card company, so it doesn't quite make sense to be to log it as
such. I've tried a couple of different things and am now just thinking
about trying to reconcile it at the end of the month some how but I also
figure that this is a bit of a solved problem.

How can I formulate these transactions to handle this kind of situation?

Thank you so much,
Bill


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