Subsidiary virtual accounts

[Mike or Penny Novack]

On 1/14/2017 6:35 PM, Liz wrote:
> On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 15:03:24 -0800 (PST)
> virtual <cliff at oneuk.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm totally new to Gnucash and I'm not an accountant.
> Your needs are simple - but do you need all of these separate for tax
> reporting?
>
> Of course this can be done, but a combination of tools would be my way
> of doing it. I would have 3 separate files (or sets of books) in
> Gnucash, and make the overall balance with the assistance of a
> spreadsheet program.
>
> Liz
Maybe a good reason to do it, so let's discuss how. Subsidiary books are 
not uncommon in the business world.  You can do what Liz suggests and 
combine outside of gnucash OR you could use gnucash to keep the "main" 
books too. But that means learning how to connect a subsidiary book to 
the main one. By which I mean not so much how in terms of the gnucash 
but how in terms of accounting.

I suggest you learn by looking at an example, which though a somewhat 
different situation than yours, should give you the idea of what sort of 
transactions would link the books. It should not be difficult for you to 
find an accounting text dealing with the common case of separate books 
being kept for "petty cash" (remember, in a largish business the amount 
might not be so petty). Often done that way to keep the clutter of a 
large number of small amount transactions from the main books as the 
company directors don't care about each box  of pencils or dinner gift 
cards given as rewards << just the TOTAL in categories >>

If you do that, you will see how you might adapt that sort of thing to 
your situation.

Michael

PS: Gnucash can be used to keep books that are even more "virtual" and 
don't interact with any main books. Think about those "what if this were 
an investment" or "what if this were a business" sorts of questions.