Here is a case where a little but of the history of double entry
bookkeeping might help you.
Originally (hundreds of years ago) there was just "assets",
"liabilities", and "equity". The other side of the transaction for money
coming in or going out was either "liabilities" or "equity". This had
the advantage of immediately being able to see "net worth: << the
balance of equity" >> but no way of seeing how items of income or
expense might be grouped".
The the TEMPORARY account types of "income" and "expense" were
introduced. These are actually of fundamental type "equity". As
transactions that were items of income or items of expense came in,
these accounts were used for the other side of the transaction. With
suitable tree structure for income and expense accounts, it was possible
to see what the totals of a particular income or expense were, say an
expense "rent", for example.
At the end of the accounting period these were closed into a special
account usually called "[profit and loss" (fundamental type equity) and
whatever amount was needed to balance this to zero (a net profit or a
net loss) was entered here and in equity itself. We don't have t do his
with gnucash, which can produce for us a "profit and loss" report
without "closing the books"
It sounds like (I'm guessing) is that you want to immediately put
"tithe" transactions into equity as opposed to them first being in an
"expense" type account. WHY? Why THERE (under equity) rather than first
under "expense". Again my guess, but you don't want to consider them
like your other expenses and have been deceived by the term "expense".
Just make up your own word for "expenses not tithe" and "tithe" and make
those both children of the top level "expense". Now you know the word
you chose for the account "expenses not tithe" is what other people call
"expense".
Michael D Novack
On 8/5/2020 5:14 PM, Marilyn Graves Kimple via gnucash-user wrote:
Thanks-- but my problem is that I do not treat items from these equity accounts as
expenses at all. In my former program it was called a "fund" account and I
could move funds in and out of the equity accounts without affecting my monthly expenses.
It was like an assets account but of course it just represented a designated portion of
my assets. Since I cannot assign an opening balance to part of my equity account I am not
sure this is something I can now do.
For example, I write a check for a donation, credit my checking account and
directly debit my tithe (equity) account. It does not show up as a monthly
expense, although I transfer funds each month to the tithe (equity) fund by
debiting what I am (possibly incorrectly) calling my accruals (expense)
account. I divide up any profit/loss at the end of the month directly to my
equity sub-accounts as credits, so my income always zeros out my expenses at
the end of the month.
I would sure like to figure out a way to do that in GnuCash. If I just treated
my tithe, etc. accounts as expenses I do not see how I could keep a running
balance. Maybe I will just have to do something different.
Best regards, mgk
Message: 3
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2020 10:35:32 -0500
From: Adrien Monteleone <adrien.montele...@lusfiber.net>
To: gnucash-u...@lists.gnucash.org
Subject: Re: [GNC] help to set up equity sub-accounts opening balances
Message-ID: <rgejk5$f3s$1...@ciao.gmane.io>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
While you can make any account structure you want, there's no need to do
so just for reporting purposes. Reports can show expenses (or anything
else) monthly, yearly, for just a few days, or one day only if you like.
Regards,
Adrien
On 8/4/20 10:07 AM, Marilyn Graves Kimple via gnucash-user wrote:
I have used double-entry bookkeeping although I am not trained. In the past I
have used what I called 'fund' accounts as sub-accounts for my equity account:
home maintenance, tithe, and emergency savings, for example. I divide my
'profits' each month and accrue them through an expense account to accounts
which are part of my total equity.
The object is to keep a running total for expenses which are typically annual
rather than a month-by-month total. Can I do this with GnuCash? I think I
really need to do this.
Setting up my accounts initially I tried setting up sub-accounts under the
parent Equity, and then under the Equity sub-account Opening Balances, and it
only allows me to transfer to Open Balances in each case. The funds in my
assets/liabilities account are not transferable 1 to 1 to one of these other
accounts.
I may have to change the way I do things, but I would really appreciate help
with this.? mgk
_______________________________________________
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.
--
There is no possibility of social justice on a dead planet except the equality
of the grave.
_______________________________________________
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.
