Help with grouping travel expenses

[Mike or Penny Novack]

On 5/4/2017 5:43 AM, Thomas Robitaille wrote:
> I regularly travel for my work and need to record travel expenses in
> GnuCash. However, at the moment I can't figure out what the best way is to
> group all travel expenses for a given trip so that I can easily see the
> total cost for a particular trip, or generate a report of all expenses (and
> reimbursements) for one trip.
>
> What is the best practice for this - should I make one account per trip?
> (this could get a bit out of control over time). Making a split transaction
> is not a solution here since it seems that I would need to pick a single
> date whereas the trips can last 1-2 weeks. One additional factor is that I
> need to be able to put different expenses for a same trip in different
> currencies, but I think I know how to do that (just having different asset
> accounts for each currency).
Whenever we have a need of detailed accounting in what would be a small 
portion of the overall books, and especially when we need detailed 
reporting of this activity for one purpose (here, presumably reporting 
to an employer or for taxes) but don't need that level of detail 
overall, we should at least consider "subsidiary books".

The first question I would ask you is "how are these expenses paid for?" 
If by cash (in various currencies) or a dedicated credit card (but not 
by checks drawn on your personal checking account) it would not be 
difficult to manage a subsidiary "travel book". Note that if you are not 
now using a DEDICATED credit card, that could probably be arranged.

Michael D Novack

PS -- with this sort of solution, yes you CAN use split transactions 
moving the effect of a trips to your main books because because THAT 
takes place on a single date (monthly? when each trip is complete?, etc.)

      - for an example of "subsidiary books" you should be able to find 
an old fashioned accounting/bookkeeping book that discusses "petty cash 
books". That would show you how every so often the detailed expenses for 
a period are closed into the main books and the asset account(s) refreshed.

    - with this sort of solution the clutter of separate parent accounts 
for each trip would not be a burden since nothing would stop you from 
relegating an old "travel book" to history and starting a new one.

PSS -- with my organizations, if one of them is putting on a LARGE 
event, especially one that might have its own bank & paypal accounts, 
especially if something coordinated with a national/parent organization 
with whom financial details of the event had to be shared, I always open 
a set of books for the event. To apply to your case, if your trips had 
enough transaction activity to justify this (I'd say over a hundred) you 
COULD even have a set of books for each tip!