Re: mileage recording I record business mileage using an unused currency (ZMK, whose display symbol I've changed to 'km') - this means I maintain one datafile rather than multiple spreadsheets, and using a different currency avoids accidentally mixing up numbers.
If I visit my accountant, travelling 10km, and get charged $200 for the advice, I generally record them simply as follows: 1) Expenses:Business:Accountant AUD$200 Assets:Bank -AUD$200 2) Expenses:Business:Mileage 10 ZMK Equity:Mileage -10 ZMK (or if I used a cab) Expenses:Business:Travel AUD $20 Assets:Bank -AUD $20 And the transaction report will count all kms and AUD separately, to the delight of the accountant. I could even convert the ZMKs into AUDs by ticking 'convert amounts into common currency', and the Aussie Tax Office rate of $0.66/km will apply because I've recorded this in the commodity price editor. The only difficulty I can think of is that my balance sheet will consider these mileage as expenses, artificially reducing my net worth. This is unfortunate; after all, a life well travelled is usually enriched by the experience... C On 3 October 2017 at 17:22, jeffrey black <beastmaster...@hotmail.com> wrote: > On 9/29/2017 5:43 AM, Maf. King wrote: > > Hi Wesley, > > > > Welcome to GC & the list. > > > > On Friday, 29 September 2017 01:07:00 BST Wesley Vick wrote: > >> Greeting > > I > >> have begin entering all my expenses since Jan 1 2017. I have finally > >> finished entering all the expenses and entered the balance of my > checking > >> account. Here is my problem. All the receipts posted have already been > >> paid. The balance of my checking account is what I have right now. After > >> entering everything, I am showing a negative balance of $6,000.00. How > can > >> I fix the software to show the true balance and that is what is in the > >> checking account. Can I go into Equity and maybe show starting balance > of > >> the negative $6,000 or do I need to go back to January and start > entering > >> all deposits that have been made? > > I'm a little confused here - you say you have entered everything, then > you ask > > if you need to enter an opening balance and the deposits into your > account. > > which is true? > > > > When you started your GC records in January, you should have entered an > > "opening balance", (probably dated 31st Dec 2016) - there is a box for > this as > > part of the account setup dialogue box. You would find this "opening > balance" > > number on a bank statement or other doc from your institution. If you > missed > > this step, no problem, go ahead and create one manually. You want to use > > Equity:Opening Balances as the transfer account. > > > > this step ensures that as of the first second of this year, GC and your > bank > > agree with how much money you have in that account. > > > > Record all your expenses and incomes for that account, and throughout the > > year, the GC balance should closely follow the totals on your bank > statements. > > > > > >> I appreciate all the work you have done > >> creating this software for there are more than 400 police officers that > >> work for this firm part time and they are a ll interested in this > software. > > Great, I hope it helps them and they "get" the idea of open source > software > > and are eventually able to help the community of us other users around > the > > world in some way. > > > > > >> All I need now is to find software to track my mileage for my vehicle. > Is > >> there a section in this software that I can submit a time sheet for the > >> work completed that will show the hours worked, time in, time out, > location > >> of the security work performed as well as the mileage driven? > > I don't think so. It is an accounting package, not a time-management > tool. > > You may be able to track mileage using the stocks & commodities section, > but > > I'm not sure if it would be a very good idea. Speradsheets like > LibreOffice > > Calc might be a better bet, or some project management packages. > > > > You could also see if the Customer/Invoice section will work, but it may > not > > produce results exactly like a "timesheet" > > > > Good Luck, > > Maf. > > > > _______________________________________________ > > gnucash-user mailing list > > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > > ----- > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > > . > > > Wesley: > > I think Maf pretty much answered your first 2 questions so I will not > comment on them. Your third one on time, mileage, etc. well that can be > done with a little consideration of the accounts you use. The World > Class Guru's that developed GNU-Cash went a little further in their > development than they realized. You can keep records for a lot more > than dollars in and out. And I am more than grateful for their efforts, > especially at tax time. Right now I am in the process of setting up a > set of accounts to keep track of my cattle (shots, calves, sell, death > loss, etc). GNU-Cash allows you to split a transaction out to many > accounts, so long as all debits match all credits. Once I got it > knocked thru my thick skull that dollars ain't necessarily dollars, > might be chickens to pay the doctor, a lot of unconventional and > unexpected uses opened up for GNU-Cash. Just don't show the reports to > your accountant. > > Before you even begin to try and set up a system for this, create a new > GNU-Cash file to work with because you are going to make a specialty set > of books and a lot of mistakes before you get it set up the way YOU want > it. You will probably want a separate file for this anyway. You can > always add other needed accounts as needed. > > I routinely track my mileage for my farm use, our medical, and my wife's > schedule C business for each trip for farm/business/medical. Each > purchase/doctor trip includes a mileage entry, in my case all tax > deductible. I have 2 accounts set up for mileage, one for each round > trip, and one accumulated mileage. In simple terms the round trip > mileage is dollars and payee is to/from vendor/doctor. In your case you > may have to use actual odometer reading, like I hear on my scanner. For > me, accumulated round trip mileage is considered as an income account > (love U.S. tax code, NOT) while individual round trip miles are an > expense I pay out of pocket which go with each transaction. At tax time > I simply drop of the dollar sign and magically it is mileage. > > You would also need accounts for start time and end time going to an > accumulated time account. Again, magically time is dollars. o 8 > hundred 30 is $8.30 . > > Location to is Payee, from is Notes. Or you could combine them. With a > little more planning you could even have accounts for beginning mileage > and ending mileage going to respective accumulated mileage, with Payee > to on start mileage and a return Payee on end mileage. > > All of these go into one transaction. Play with the report generator > and get a report that you can hopefully turn in as is or with a little > addition and subtraction you can put the numbers directly into the forms > required by your department. A black Sharpie to mark out dollar signs > where needed? > > Like I said, GNU-Cash was developed for double entry "money" entry. > Money used to be beads, bear skins, etc. Once you convince your self to > think outside the box, GNU-Cash is an extremely formidable program. For > your purposes "money" in any pair of accounts can be any commodity you > want it to be. They do not all have to be dollars despite the dollar > sign in front of them. > > > --JEffrey Black M.B.A. > > > > _______________________________________________ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > ----- > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
