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authorJohn Wiegley <johnw@newartisans.com>2009-10-25 23:08:07 -0400
committerJohn Wiegley <johnw@newartisans.com>2009-10-25 23:11:30 -0400
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Added beginning draft of manual for 3.0
This is being kept in Scrivener format, for ease of writing.
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+{\colortbl;\red255\green255\blue255;}
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+
+\f0\fs28 \cf0 Sometimes you will want to spend money on behalf of someone else,\
+which will eventually get repaid. Since the money is still ``yours'',\
+it is really an asset. And since the expenditure was for someone\
+else, you don't want it contaminating your Expenses reports. You will\
+need to keep an account for tracking reimbursements.\
+\
+This is fairly easy to do in ledger. When spending the money, spend\
+it @emph\{to\} your Assets:Reimbursements, using a different account for\
+each person or business that you spend money for. For example:\
+\
+@smallexample\
+2004/09/29 Circuit City\
+ Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ $100.00\
+ Liabilities:MasterCard\
+@end smallexample\
+\
+This shows $100.00 spent on a MasterCard at Circuit City, with the\
+expense was made on behalf of Company XYZ. Later, when Company XYZ\
+pays the amount back, the money will transfer from that reimbursement\
+account back to a regular asset account:\
+\
+@smallexample\
+2004/09/29 Company XYZ\
+ Assets:Checking $100.00\
+ Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ\
+@end smallexample\
+\
+This deposits the money owed from Company XYZ into a checking account,\
+presumably because they paid the amount back with a check.\
+\
+But what to do if you run your own business, and you want to keep\
+track of expenses made on your own behalf, while still tracking\
+everything in a single ledger file? This is more complex, because you\
+need to track two separate things: 1) The fact that the money should\
+be reimbursed to you, and 2) What the expense account was, so that you\
+can later determine where your company is spending its money.\
+\
+This kind of posting is best handled with mirrored postings in\
+two different files, one for your personal accounts, and one for your\
+company accounts. But keeping them in one file involves the same\
+kinds of postings, so those are what is shown here. First, the\
+personal transaction, which shows the need for reimbursement:\
+\
+@smallexample\
+2004/09/29 Circuit City\
+ Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ $100.00\
+ Liabilities:MasterCard\
+@end smallexample\
+\
+This is the same as above, except that you own Company XYZ, and are\
+keeping track of its expenses in the same ledger file. This transaction\
+should be immediately followed by an equivalent transaction, which shows the\
+kind of expense, and also notes the fact that $100.00 is now payable\
+to you:\
+\
+@smallexample\
+2004/09/29 Circuit City\
+ Company XYZ:Expenses:Computer:Software $100.00\
+ Company XYZ:Accounts Payable:Your Name\
+@end smallexample\
+\
+This second transaction shows that Company XYZ has just spent $100.00 on\
+software, and that this $100.00 came from Your Name, which must be\
+paid back.\
+\
+These two transactions can also be merged, to make things a little clearer.\
+Note that all amounts must be specified now:\
+\
+@smallexample\
+2004/09/29 Circuit City\
+ Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ $100.00\
+ Liabilities:MasterCard $-100.00\
+ Company XYZ:Expenses:Computer:Software $100.00\
+ Company XYZ:Accounts Payable:Your Name $-100.00\
+@end smallexample\
+\
+To ``pay back'' the reimbursement, just reverse the order of\
+everything, except this time drawing the money from a company asset,\
+paying it to accounts payable, and then drawing it again from the\
+reimbursement account, and paying it to your personal asset account.\
+It's easier shown than said:\
+\
+@smallexample\
+2004/10/15 Company XYZ\
+ Assets:Checking $100.00\
+ Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ $-100.00\
+ Company XYZ:Accounts Payable:Your Name $100.00\
+ Company XYZ:Assets:Checking $-100.00\
+@end smallexample\
+\
+And now the reimbursements account is paid off, accounts payable is\
+paid off, and $100.00 has been effectively transferred from the\
+company's checking account to your personal checking account. The\
+money simply ``waited''---in both @samp\{Assets:Reimbursements:Company\
+XYZ\}, and @samp\{Company XYZ:Accounts Payable:Your Name\}---until such\
+time as it could be paid off.\
+\
+The value of tracking expenses from both sides like that is that you\
+do not contaminate your personal expense report with expenses made on\
+behalf of others, while at the same time making it possible to\
+generate accurate reports of your company's expenditures. It is more\
+verbose than just paying for things with your personal assets, but it\
+gives you a very accurate information trail.\
+\
+The advantage to keep these doubled transactions together is that they\
+always stay in sync. The advantage to keeping them apart is that it\
+clarifies the transfer's point of view. To keep the postings in\
+separate files, just separate the two transactions that were joined above.\
+For example, for both the expense and the pay-back shown above, the\
+following four transactions would be created. Two in your personal ledger\
+file:\
+\
+@smallexample\
+2004/09/29 Circuit City\
+ Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ $100.00\
+ Liabilities:MasterCard $-100.00\
+\
+2004/10/15 Company XYZ\
+ Assets:Checking $100.00\
+ Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ $-100.00\
+@end smallexample\
+\
+And two in your company ledger file:\
+\
+@smallexample\
+!account Company XYZ\
+\
+2004/09/29 Circuit City\
+ Expenses:Computer:Software $100.00\
+ Accounts Payable:Your Name $-100.00\
+\
+2004/10/15 Company XYZ\
+ Accounts Payable:Your Name $100.00\
+ Assets:Checking $-100.00\
+\
+!end\
+@end smallexample\
+\
+(Note: The @samp\{!account\} above means that all accounts mentioned in\
+the file are children of that account. In this case it means that all\
+activity in the file relates to Company XYZ).\
+\
+After creating these transactions, you will always know that $100.00 was\
+spent using your MasterCard on behalf of Company XYZ, and that Company\
+XYZ spent the money on computer software and paid it back about two\
+weeks later.} \ No newline at end of file