[GNC] flex card for medical expenses

[David T.]

Larry, 

Please keep this on the list by using Reply-All. 

You most definitely can have transactions in an equity account. There's nothing special about them. 

I'll note that the assignment transaction creates negative balance in both the equity account and the liability account, due to their underlying nature. The reimbursements from the HSA go into a current account (increasing that) and are balanced by the equity account (also increasing that). 

Bear in mind that these transactions only manage HSA balances themselves (i.e., the amount you "owe" the HSA and the amount left to spend); the tracking of the different types of expense gets handled by the transactions to actual providers. And there really isn't any mechanism to track which expenses have been submitted to or paid out by the HSA. That's a headache all its own. 

As Michael noted elsewhere, there isn't a way to *enforce* a cap, although the equity account in this case gives you a sense of where you stand on that. You know you've maxed it out when the balance reaches zero. 

David T. 

On May 25, 2026 4:34:14 PM GMT+05:30, Lawrence Whalen <lwhalen26 at gmail.com> wrote:
>Hi both David and Tom,
>
>Sorry my email got messed up and I missed that it was Tom who asked me what
>happened to the funds. The way it works is at the end of the year you are
>asked how much you want to put into the fund then you have that available
>to you starting at the beginning of the year. If you don't use it the funds
>are lost.
>
>David if you have the funds in an equity account how do you show they are drawn
>if you use them as far as I've seen so far you can't modify or use an
>equity account in gnucash for a transaction. I will admit I am new to
>gnucash and I am not an accountant I am just trying to set up household
>finances so that we don't overspend and can plan a real budget. We used
>Excel before but that had a lot of limitations I like many things I am
>seeing in the gnucash at this point and feel it will work for us.
>
>Regards,
>
>Larry
>
>
>On Mon, May 25, 2026 at 6:57 AM Lawrence Whalen <lwhalen26 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi David,
>>
>> You have to use it all by the end of the year or lose it. So many times
>> use it on a pair of glasses so it is not wasted.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Larry
>>
>>
>> On Mon, May 25, 2026 at 12:12 AM David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Larry,
>>>
>>> That sounds a lot like a US Health Spending Account (HSA). With an HSA, a
>>> person chooses an amount that will be allocated for medical expenses the
>>> following year, and an amount is deducted from their paycheck over the year
>>> (pretax) to make up that amount. Originally, the money was lost if not
>>> spent at the end of the year, but at this time, some of that allocation can
>>> be carried over to subsequent years.
>>>
>>> I have set up our HSA using a few accounts. There are annual accounts in
>>> equity and liability. At the beginning of the year, the full amount for the
>>> year (in your case, $600) is transferred from equity into the liability.
>>> The payroll deductions go into the liability account and reduce that
>>> balance ultimately to zero. Payments from the HSA provider go into the
>>> equity account until that account (ideally) reaches zero as well.
>>>
>>> I'm sure I'm missing tons here, but that's what I've got to offer.
>>>
>>> David T.
>>>
>>>
>>> On May 24, 2026 9:19:49 PM GMT+05:30, Lawrence Whalen <
>>> lwhalen26 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I'm hoping someone can give me some guidance on how to set up a medical
>>>> flex card that has a $600 limit, but has $50.00 deducted each month from
>>>> salary.
>>>>
>>>> The flex card full amount can be used at any time the deductions will just
>>>> keep going. If it is exceeded you have to pay out of pocket.
>>>>
>>>> I am trying to figure out accounts to set up and how to set a cap per se
>>>> that cannot be exceeded because once exceeded you can no longer use it.
>>>>
>>>> Thank you all for any help.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>>
>>>> Larry
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