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author | John Wiegley <johnw@newartisans.com> | 2009-10-25 23:08:07 -0400 |
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committer | John Wiegley <johnw@newartisans.com> | 2009-10-25 23:11:30 -0400 |
commit | 1f5ceb0db50df9ad0f9048ee02ad749507cbd737 (patch) | |
tree | a8609fdcd28aa4d371aebf8a9867e43014e652f1 /doc/Ledger.scriv/182.rtfd/TXT.rtf | |
parent | 9dadaebfeb461ba795124281018d0f7eac200cf4 (diff) | |
download | fork-ledger-1f5ceb0db50df9ad0f9048ee02ad749507cbd737.tar.gz fork-ledger-1f5ceb0db50df9ad0f9048ee02ad749507cbd737.tar.bz2 fork-ledger-1f5ceb0db50df9ad0f9048ee02ad749507cbd737.zip |
Added beginning draft of manual for 3.0
This is being kept in Scrivener format, for ease of writing.
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/Ledger.scriv/182.rtfd/TXT.rtf')
-rw-r--r-- | doc/Ledger.scriv/182.rtfd/TXT.rtf | 151 |
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diff --git a/doc/Ledger.scriv/182.rtfd/TXT.rtf b/doc/Ledger.scriv/182.rtfd/TXT.rtf new file mode 100644 index 00000000..cf24e4dc --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/Ledger.scriv/182.rtfd/TXT.rtf @@ -0,0 +1,151 @@ +{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\cocoartf949\cocoasubrtf460 +{\fonttbl\f0\fmodern\fcharset0 Courier;} +{\colortbl;\red255\green255\blue255;} +\pard\tx560\tx1120\tx1680\tx2240\tx2800\tx3360\tx3920\tx4480\tx5040\tx5600\tx6160\tx6720\sl264\slmult1\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural + +\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.}
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