[GNC] Can a bank account have sub-accounts?

[R Losey]

Yes, you can!

I do something like what you say, as long as these are funds deposited into
the bank that are earmarked for those expenses... As an example, I set
aside some money for a vacation, but those funds are in the bank account,
so I have sub-accounts for how much they have.

I only "transfer" money from this account to the main bank account, since
it is from there that I use debit cards or write checks to pay for things.
Expenses are sent to the vacation expense account.

It's a few extra steps, but it can certainly be done.  Quicken called these
things "savings goals".

In addition to the vacation sub-account, we also have a "credit" sub
account that holds money for paying off the credit card(s) each month. I
happen to enter data weekly, and I transfer money from the bank account to
the credit sub-account to cover all of the charges made that week. That
way, I always have enough funds to pay off the credit card(s). When a
payment is due, we transfer money from the credit account to the bank
account, and then pay the card from the bank account.

You might be able to do something by having those expenses, such as
Equipment Enhancement get both the credits and debits, but I'm not sure how
you would keep the bank balance right (there is probably an accounting way
to do this)... as a personal example, if I get $50 a month for clothing
expenditures, I could give the clothing account $50 each month, and then
take the money away as I spend it on clothes... the account would therefore
always tell me the exact balance in the clothing account. But I don't know
what the other side of the $50 added would be. Future spending?  Budgeted?


On Mon, Mar 13, 2023 at 8:55 AM Mort Q <mortqqq at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all
> I act as Treasurer for a community organisation, and want to look for a way
> that GnuCash can subdivide the money in the bank account into planned
> expenses e.g. a few members do ongoing fund raising for equipment, so could
> I make a sub-account of the bank account called "Equipment enhancement"?
> When making a deposit, allocate that money to "Assets:Current Assets:Bank
> Account:Equipment Enhancement" instead of the currently-used
> "Assets:Current Assets:Bank Account".
>
> Currently, we just have the one account called "Bank Account" in the Assets
> tree, and I keep a separate spreadsheet with the allocation break up.  I
> have to remember to do the extra work to keep the spreadsheet up to date.
> In my previous life, I learnt that it was better to have a single point of
> truth for data.
>
> I am thinking I will end up with an account tree like
> Assets:
>    -Current Assets:
>         -Accounts Receivable
>         -Bank Account:  (will still need this to be reported on for audits,
> etc, as a single account)
>               -General Funds
>               -Equipment Enhancement
>               -Saved for something else
>               -etc
> Does this make sense?  Or am I missing something?
> Or creating a nightmare that will come back and bite me when I try to do
> reports, etc later?
>
> Clearly, I am not an accountant, and a self-taught GnuCash user.
>
> Thanks
> Mort
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-- 
_________________________________
Richard Losey
rlosey at gmail.com
Micah 6:8