I followed that discussion (somewhat, though was quite confused by a lot of it), but I don't expect that to get implemented any time soon. On Sat, Feb 3, 2018, at 11:08 PM, Matt Graham wrote: > Welcome to the discussion!
> > So if I understand correctly, you have written scripts to automate the > use of extra accounts to track allocated money? That was the line I > was going down too (except building them into GNUCash), but Chris > Lam’s discussion on “Budget transactions” is starting to look to me > like a simpler and more elegant way to do what we want, whilst fitting > in with other uses of budgets and automating what we want... Have a > look on the Dev list for more details – can’t remember how much he > posted on the user list about it.> > Thanks and regards, > > Matt > > *From: *ebridges[1] *Sent: *Sunday, 4 February 2018 11:39 AM *To: *gnucash- > u...@gnucash.org *Subject: *Re: Future allocated money vs Budgets> > Sorry for the delayed response, just managing to catch up on > this thread. > > I've been looking at how to do envelope-style budgeting for my > personal finances using GnuCash for about 6-7 months. Like you, this > began with this article from 2008 "[Better Budgeting with GnuCash"] > > (https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fallmybrain.com%2F2008%2F12%2F15%2Fbetter-budgeting-with-gnucash%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7C9b6d2224a4b3476a8f9b08d56b67cddb%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636533015939354212&sdata=frZ3TUMhMzf%2FA2zBxsSTJZLW5UYLhrctdjhiXmgtvwE%3D&reserved=0) > . > > After toying around with that approach, I decided there were two > drawbacks to it: > > 1. It was tedious. Manually creating a split for every expense to > draw down budget accounts ("envelopes") that were allocated > previously, was super boring and error prone. In addition, > because of the detailed nature of doing this work, one would be > discouraged from allocating all of your income to different > "envelopes". > 2. It was fragile. By treating "Budgeted Cash" as an asset made > allocated money difficult to reconcile to money that was drawn out > of your budget accounts. A useful insight in that article is to > consider a budget account as a liability. However, it categorizes > budgeted cash as an Asset, when it is more useful to consider it > also as a liability. Doing so allows you to reconcile allocated > money to monies spent out of the "envelopes". > > For the past month, I've been able to apply an approach to my > existing reconciliation process that I believe will prove to be a > very useful and easy to manage approach to envelope budgeting for > personal finance. > > To simplify allocating income and expenses to envelopes I use > two tools: > > * [QifQif] > > (https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2FKraymer%2Fqifqif&data=02%7C01%7C%7C9b6d2224a4b3476a8f9b08d56b67cddb%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636533015939354212&sdata=pGZVbq9N4uDjNAI2fJg0WroQ2t4MpcVUpqglYYVmmuw%3D&reserved=0) > which makes it easy to quickly insert categories into a QIF file; > * [qif-split] > > (https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Febridges%2Fqif-split&data=02%7C01%7C%7C9b6d2224a4b3476a8f9b08d56b67cddb%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636533015939354212&sdata=eSOJkz3h29fzh4kHHVH5xf6sYk4Do7LBns%2B3jBCtfzA%3D&reserved=0) > , a tool that I wrote, which adds splits to QIF files according to > some rules defined in a file. > > After downloading transactions for my credit card & bank accounts in > QIF format, I first process the file with QifQif to match up every > transaction to one of my accounts from GnuCash. QifQif supports > using wild cards and regexes for matching payees to accounts, and > then adds the account as a category to the QIF transaction. > > After categorization of the transactions, the files can be processed > by `qif-split`, and split according to predefined rules. > > I have been using `QifQif` for about a year, and have found it to be > very reliable and easy to work with. In the past month, I began > using `qif-split` to allocate income and expenses to budget accounts. > > The `qif-split` configuration rules splitting the incoming > transactions are twofold > > 1. Allocating income as credits to various envelopes, or > 2. Allocating expenses as debits to those same envelopes. > > These allocations are balanced with corresponding debits or credits > to a "Budgeted Cash" account. Because of these balanced entries, the > toplevel "Budgets" account will always self-reconcile (i.e. its > balance will always be 0). When the balance of a given budget > subaccount ("envelopes") is negative, then you've overspent that > category. > > By using `qif-split` to automatically generate split transactions, > and by altering my chart of accounts to roll up budgeted cash > alongside the budgeted expenses it makes envelope-style budgeting > very straightforward in GnuCash. > > > > > -- > Sent from: > > https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fgnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com%2FGnuCash-User-f1415819.html&data=02%7C01%7C%7C9b6d2224a4b3476a8f9b08d56b67cddb%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636533015939354212&sdata=ljoRx485NZ8x5yfi573z7%2B1SZDkp0mI%2BM2tgbTHirk4%3D&reserved=0 > _______________________________________________ > gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your > subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > > https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flists.gnucash.org%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fgnucash-user&data=02%7C01%7C%7C9b6d2224a4b3476a8f9b08d56b67cddb%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636533015939354212&sdata=iOTYIloNP9mPf%2BbYNJz2r4reBKopqFdTlhbitbSOkOA%3D&reserved=0 > If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see > > https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwiki.gnucash.org%2Fwiki%2FMailing_Lists&data=02%7C01%7C%7C9b6d2224a4b3476a8f9b08d56b67cddb%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636533015939354212&sdata=mRZ8kW76nMHijaJGEfx3ZvnOzSzXzrTaHvUyLWqYqaQ%3D&reserved=0 > for more information. > ----- > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this > by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.> Links: 1. mailto:ebrid...@eqbridges.com _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
