Double Entry of Informal "Loan" & Repayment

[Keith Lewis]

I'm new to GC, longtime Quicken user. This is a double-entry accounting question rather than a GC question-hope that's okay in this mailing list. I made a purchase for a gift w credit card and used expenses:gifts to balance. Afterwards, a friend wanted to help with the gift and so paid me half with cash. I think I should deposit that cash into assets:wallet and balance with expenses:gift. But isnt the cash from my friend income? Does this sound right to you? Now imagine my friend had offered ahead of time to help pay for the gift, but didn't immediately have the cash. I think I could record the transactions as above or set up a "loan" account to track the "loan". IOW split liability:creditcard -> expense:gifts + liability:creditcard -> loan; then when he pays me back, loan -> asset:wallet.Thanks for your time,Keith