[GNC] Best way to track expenses for trips

[Adrien Monteleone]

I don't think the intent is to avoid setting the CoA properly, but 
rather, with it properly set, how can one get a P&L style report for 
only a subset of transactions matching a particular need.

This is in the realm of Managerial Accounting, something GnuCash is not 
specifically designed to do. That doesn't mean we can't get really close 
with a bit of effort. (otherwise, an entirely separate system would have 
to be maintained)

But that does make sense that crafting other reports based on 
transaction-level filters won't work under the present code design.

While it would be nice for the P&L (and maybe the Balance Sheet) to have 
these options, the Transaction Report is most of the way there. Having 
the ability to aggregate transactions in the results by type/parent with 
a 'totals' option for those groupings, would likely get most folks to 
the finish line without having to use external apps. (A multi-column 
report using 2 Transactions Reports might do the trick) I'm not against 
using external apps, but I understand how and why folks will look for 
GnuCash to do what they want first.

Regards,
Adrien

On 7/27/26 5:46 PM, Michael or Penny Novack via gnucash-user wrote:
> What ACCOUNT BALANCES have a Description, Memo, or Notes? You are 
> talking about TRANSACTIONS. The reports in question are only dealing 
> with account balances as they are, not recomputing balances based on 
> what transactions you wanted included in the balance. You can "filter 
> ACCOUNTS" (report on all or a subset).
> 
> You are wanting to avoid the labor of setting your CoA properly. To let 
> you combine several accounts. Post transactions to any of these just 
> into one and "separate later by some filtering rule). Standard/ 
> traditional accounting allows just ONE tree structure for the ledger << 
> the tags, labels, etc. that you miss are effectively allowing alternate 
> tree structures to exist >>