[GNC] Allocate costs across residents, while “categorizing”

[Doug]

I am not an accountant, but have rental properties in Australia. 
 I use the second method. In Australia all the income  costs are 
lumped together on our return. (but you will need to have the data 
if you are audited!). 
 I use the method of rents being scheduled to a ´rent due´ for each 
client/property & balance to income acct, the rent received ditto goes 
to the same parent acct, as a ´rent recd´. This means the acct total is 
what is in credit/debit for the client. For costs, there is a parent 
acct for each property & paid bills are entered in sub accts such as 
power, rates, insurance (which may be split between properties) etc.
 At the end of the year I give my accountant a report that breaks 
everything up into properties, ins & outs then gives totals that are used 
for the tax return. There are also depreciation values included that are 
calculated yearly. (because there are different formulas used, I write 
the formula in the first entry ´description´ in the asset acct so I remember 
how it is calculated.) Believe me, when you own a property for a long time, 
it is good to remind yourself how it is calculated!
 btw, because I use cash accounting, I balance up the real income from rents
annually for my tax return because not everyone is up to date!
 One advantage I feel of using this method is I can start a new primary acct 
for a new tenancy. Old accounts are hidden once you no longer require them 
(but always available if you are audited!)

regards, Doug


On Thu, 8 May 2025 20:36:50 -0500
R Losey <rlosey at gmail.com> wrote:

> Assuming you have a Property 1, Property 2, and Property 3, you can either
> set up the accounts (I'm using just "maintenance" and "utilities" for the
> properties) as:
> 
> Properties
>    Maintenance
>       Property 1
>       Property 2
>       Property 3
>    Utilities
>       Property 1
>       Property 2
>       Property 3
> 
> You will then have a maintenance total for all properties, and each
> property, but you will not have the total costs for each property -- you'd
> have to create a report only using the accounts for Property 1.
> 
> The other way to do it is turning the above idea inside out, so to speak:
> 
> Properties
>    Property 1
>       Maintenance
>       Utilities
>    Property 2
>       Maintenance
>       Utilities
>    Property 3
>       Maintenance
>       Utilities
> 
> This way, you see the property costs at a glance, but you'll need to create
> a custom report to get the separate maintenance totals.
> 
> Just my tuppence...
> 
> 
> On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 5:36 PM Graham Eastwood <graham at eastwooduk.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > Hi
> > I have set up allocating bills paid across my properties using scheduled
> > transactions, but how do I at the same time allocate the cost to an expense
> > account such as maintenance, when gnucash doesn’t have categories, only
> > accounts.
> > I’m tearing my hair out trying to do this!
> > Regards
> > Graham
> > 07899 066280 (m)
> > Sent from my iPad
> >  
> > > On 6 May 2025, at 11:06, Graham Eastwood <graham at eastwooduk.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi
> > > I loaded a qif file from by bank account. Maybe connected to this I now  
> > have a “Current Account+” which appears to replicate the “Current Account”
> > I created by renaming GnuCash’s “Checking Account”. It contains all the
> > same transactions and current balance. However, this spurious account
> > doesn’t appear in the Accounts hierarchy, so I can’t delete it.  
> > > What’s going on, and how do I rectify it?
> > > Regards
> > > Graham
> > > Sent from my iPad  
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> 
> -- 
> _________________________________
> Richard Losey
> rlosey at gmail.com
> Micah 6:8
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