Best way to handle multi-day "split" transaction?

[Mike or Penny Novack]

On 11/28/2016 8:30 AM, replicon wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to figure out how to best handle accounting for a property I
> purchased.
>
> There are two quirks making things a bit challenging:
These aren't "quirks" but fundamental to doing the accounting for 
property purchased (things like what "expenses" aren't expenses but part 
of the purchase basis", "how to do depreciation", etc. . You problem 
isn't with gnucash but accounting fundamentals which would be the same 
no matter what your were using, even pen and ink on accounting paper. 
Nor do we know the rules for your jurisdiction, since you haven't told 
us what that is << and maybe nobody here would know the rules for THAT 
jurisdiction in any case >>

You refer to "your accountant". Is this person not able to advise you 
what to do? Perhaps not the level of detail "how do I enter this using 
gnucash" but WHAT am I supposed to be entering in terms of what 
accounts, etc.

Michael D Novack

PS: In case what I am saying isn't clear, consider your saying "I want 
to depreciate just the building, not the land". That (most probably) 
isn't an "I want" but "I am allowed to" << at least in the jurisdiction 
where I have experience - you CAN'T depreciate the land. And by 
indicating you don't know what to do, make it likely you have not 
considered
total basis = land basis + building basis  (you can make those two 
children of a parent, and now you have an obvious amount to depreciate, 
with an account for "depreciation taken" a child there.

Your accountant should set up your CoA for you.