[GNC] accounts setup (how to duplicate same payment in two expense accounts)

[Adrien Monteleone]

You can use parent accounts as placeholders, or as their own accounts with children.

I’ve found that using them as placeholders is much saner in the long run when you are trying to figure out what you did many moons ago. It also makes it clear that whatever is in the parent account isn’t there because it simply wasn’t factored to a child account properly. (as there won’t be anything there at all)

But either route is possible with GnuCash. It is a personal preference.

Regards,
Adrien

> On Jan 28, 2020 w5d28, at 7:17 AM, Nate Bargmann <n0nb at n0nb.us> wrote:
> 
> I had a similar question a while back and the solution was to use
> sub-accounts.  In this case I would try the following and see how it
> works for you:
> 
> Expenses:Vehicle:Gasoline
> Expenses:Vehicle:Gasoline:Vacation
> 
> Then make sure that E:V:G is not a placeholder account so you can enter
> transactions into it.  From what I've seen, E:V:G will show the total of
> both accounts in the Accounts tab but in the account detail will only
> show the transactions actually entered into that account.
> 
> Someone else may have a better solution, but that is how I would try it
> right now.  In fact I am doing just this to track specific items within
> a category of income/expense.
> 
> HTH
> 
> - Nate