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

[Adrien Monteleone]

> On Jan 29, 2020 w5d29, at 9:04 AM, malam via gnucash-user <gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:
> 
> It seems that there are more different solutions to my question.
> 
> Entering the transaction twice in the same database influences the total
> expenses amount and this is not something I like. I get the information
> about the categories I need, but the total expenses are spoiled by exactly
> the same amount.
> Therefore looking at the totals, I should bear this in mind all the time.

Easy fix: don’t include the ‘virtual’ tracking accounts in your reports. The only place otherwise that you would see them influence total expenses is on the Accounts tab. (they will show up in the Budget module though, which you probably want anyway)

More Involved fix: don’t put them in Expenses. Investigate using a branch of your Equity account tree. Alternatively, put them in their own top level account of type Equity. Of course, you still need to exclude them from reports that include Equity accounts such as the Balance Sheet.

> 
> Entering this particular data into a separate database would solve the
> problem in a clean way (entering same description, same amounts twice in
> different databases). But this is prone to errors, since the items are not
> in the same window)
> 
> Moving the particular transactions into sub accounts (like vacation-fuel,
> vacation-...) solves the 
> problem in a more elegant way. But I do not particularly like having a mixed
> type accounts (partly placeholder, partly not).

Yes, that can get confusing if you mix real and tracking accounts.

> 
> --
> I have also tested memo/notes suggestion and using filter on transactions
> report. 
> This is my favorite and I think this is the one I will use. In my test I
> have realized
>   - opening the split transaction view, I can assign my description for the
> account I wish (expenses only)
>   - opening double line view allows to enter notes, but these are assigned
> to both accounts (not exactly what I wish)
> Therefore using memo is preferred for my case.
> Before starting with this, one should define the keywords which will be
> used, otherwise they are not filtered correctly (a kind of vocabulary for
> this purpose). And it is important to stick to the vocabulary, because by
> default the filter is case sensitive !
> 
> Thanks to all who shared the experience and suggestions !

Glad to hear that is working for you. A ’tag’ or ‘category’ feature is already filed as an enhancement request, but it is some years old and I don’t think we’ll see it any time soon. Until then, such a home-spun filtering option is likely the way to go.

Regards,
Adrien