[GNC] Accounts which are both Income and Expense accounts

[Chris Green]

On Mon, Jul 24, 2023 at 06:08:00PM +0100, Fred Bone wrote:
> On 24 July 2023 at 16:53, Chris Green said:
> 
> > Is there a 'right' way to handle an account which gets payments in two
> > directions?
> > 
> > E.g. I have good relations with a friend and we often buy things for
> > each other and settle up at the end of the month.  Sometimes I owe the
> > friend some money, other times the friend owes me some money but it's very
> > definitely one account and one wants to see all the payments in one place.
> > 
> > I guess one can just say it's an 'Expense' account and make payments
> > in either direction as required, is this the only way or is there a
> > special name for such an account?
> 
> It's an Asset or Liability (two sides of the same coin, in a sense) at 
> your choice, depending mainly on which way you expect the balance to  be 
> in the long run.
> 
> I have an account
>  Assets -> Debtors & creditors
> where I record this sort of thing, relating to various different 
> individuals (typically the odd couple of quid every few weeks). If I had 
> one particular acquaintance generating a lot of this activity I'd run a 
> sub-account for that acquaintance.
> 
> The "Expense" is the other side of the transaction recording what the 
> oney was owed for, and might vary according to whether the expenditure 
> was a round in the pub or dinner at a local restaurant.
> 
> When (if) you actually settle up, the other side of *that* txn is of 
> course your bank account, cash in hand, or whatever.
> 
That sounds extremely sensible and easy to implement, thank you!

-- 
Chris Green