Tracking Projects

[Mike or Penny Novack]

On 7/13/2016 5:26 PM, Pete Haworth wrote:
> I am the treasurer for an organization that promotes musical concerts.  Is
> there a way for gnucash to associate income and expenses with a specific
> concert?  Right now I keep a spreadsheet to keep track since I can't find a
> way to do it in gnucash.  I guess it's a kind of project accounting.
> Thanks,
> Pete
Is that ALL your organization does? A major part of what it does? A 
minor part BUT these concerts are huge in terms in terms of amounts 
relative to your other activities? Do these events have there own bank 
accounts,credit card processing accounts, etc. It is questions like 
these I would want answers to before making the decision best way to 
proceed.

For example, one organization for which I was treasurer every several 
years would host the annual gathering of the national organization. The 
amount in and out for this event gigantic compared to other activity of 
the organization. So for THAT situation I would use (and did use) 
separate books << created a set of books for the event >>

But let's say your organization regularly puts on events. Now that 
solution maybe not so good. There are other options to consider keeping 
them on the main books. Give us a better description of what your 
organization is doing.

But first I will point out a few things that might help. It might not be 
obvious, but Income and Expense accounts are not really that different 
except in terms of how reports created. They are both temporary accounts 
of fundamental type Equity, the ones we call Income normally have a 
credit balance and the ones we call Expense normally a debit balance. So 
.........

If you want profit/loss reporting for each event you have a choice. You 
can place income and expense accounts where they usually go in the tree 
and use SELECTIVE "Income Statement" report << select just certain 
accounts -- those associated with the event for which you are preparing 
the report>>  Or you can use "contra accounts". If Concert A is expected 
to make a small profit every time, under Income put a parent "Concert A" 
and under it children "Income from A" and Expenses for A" << but the 
TYPE assigned these accounts would be income! >>  When entering 
transactions, the income ones would be credit as usual but when entering 
to one of the Concert A expense accounts would be a debit. Now you can 
just run the Income Statement for the entire organization, no selection, 
the balance of the Concert A parent will be the profit.

Again, we can't (or at least I can't) properly make suggestions about 
what might be best for your organization until knowing more about the 
requirements.

Michael D Novack