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diff --git a/doc/Ledger.scriv/196.rtfd/TXT.rtf b/doc/Ledger.scriv/196.rtfd/TXT.rtf new file mode 100644 index 00000000..cf24b656 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/Ledger.scriv/196.rtfd/TXT.rtf @@ -0,0 +1,137 @@ +{\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 There are situations when the accounts you're tracking are different\ +between your clients and the financial institutions where money is\ +kept. An example of this is working as the treasurer for a religious\ +institution. From the secular point of view, you might be working\ +with three different accounts:\ +\ +@itemize\ +@item Checking\ +@item Savings\ +@item Credit Card\ +@end itemize\ +\ +From a religious point of view, the community expects to divide its\ +resources into multiple ``funds'', from which it makes purchases or\ +reserves resources for later:\ +\ +@itemize\ +@item School fund\ +@item Building fund\ +@item Community fund\ +@end itemize\ +\ +The problem with this kind of setup is that when you spend money, it\ +comes from two or more places at once: the account and the fund. And\ +yet, the correlation of amounts between funds and accounts is rarely\ +one-to-one. What if the school fund has @samp\{$500.00\}, but\ +@samp\{$400.00\} of that comes from Checking, and @samp\{$100.00\} from\ +Savings?\ +\ +Traditional finance packages require that the money reside in only one\ +place. But there are really two ``views'' of the data: from the\ +account point of view and from the fund point of view -- yet both sets\ +should reflect the same overall expenses and cash flow. It's simply\ +where the money resides that differs.\ +\ +This situation can be handled one of two ways. The first is using\ +virtual postings to represent the fact that money is moving to and\ +from two kind of accounts at the same time:\ +\ +@smallexample\ +2004/03/20 Contributions\ + Assets:Checking $500.00\ + Income:Donations\ +\ +2004/03/25 Distribution of donations\ + [Funds:School] $300.00\ + [Funds:Building] $200.00\ + [Assets:Checking] $-500.00\ +@end smallexample\ +\ +The use of square brackets in the second transaction ensures that the\ +virtual postings balance to zero. Now money can be spent directly\ +from a fund at the same time as money is drawn from a physical\ +account:\ +\ +@smallexample\ +2004/03/25 Payment for books (paid from Checking)\ + Expenses:Books $100.00\ + Assets:Checking $-100.00\ + (Funds:School) $-100.00\ +@end smallexample\ +\ +When reports are generated, by default they'll appear in terms of the\ +funds. In this case, you will likely want to mask out your\ +@samp\{Assets\} account, because otherwise the balance won't make much\ +sense:\ +\ +@example\ +ledger bal -^Assets\ +@end example\ +\ +If the @option\{--real\} option is used, the report will be in terms of\ +the real accounts:\ +\ +@example\ +ledger --real bal\ +@end example\ +\ +If more asset accounts are needed as the source of a posting, just\ +list them as you would normally, for example:\ +\ +@smallexample\ +2004/03/25 Payment for books (paid from Checking)\ + Expenses:Books $100.00\ + Assets:Checking $-50.00\ + Liabilities:Credit Card $-50.00\ + (Funds:School) $-100.00\ +@end smallexample\ +\ +The second way of tracking funds is to use transaction codes. In this\ +respect the codes become like virtual accounts that embrace the entire\ +set of postings. Basically, we are associating a transaction with a\ +fund by setting its code. Here are two transactions that desposit money\ +into, and spend money from, the @samp\{Funds:School\} fund:\ +\ +@smallexample\ +2004/03/25 (Funds:School) Donations\ + Assets:Checking $100.00\ + Income:Donations\ +\ +2004/04/25 (Funds:School) Payment for books\ + Expenses:Books $50.00\ + Assets:Checking\ +@end smallexample\ +\ +Note how the accounts now relate only to the real accounts, and any\ +balance or registers reports will reflect this. That the transactions\ +relate to a particular fund is kept only in the code.\ +\ +How does this become a fund report? By using the\ +@option\{--code-as-payee\} option, you can generate a register report\ +where the payee for each posting shows the code. Alone, this is\ +not terribly interesting; but when combined with the\ +@option\{--by-payee\} option, you will now see account subtotals for any\ +postings related to a specific fund. So, to see the current\ +monetary balances of all funds, the command would be:\ +\ +@smallexample\ +ledger --code-as-payee -P reg ^Assets\ +@end smallexample\ +\ +Or to see a particular funds expenses, the @samp\{School\} fund in this\ +case:\ +\ +@smallexample\ +ledger --code-as-payee -P reg ^Expenses -- School\ +@end smallexample\ +\ +Both approaches yield different kinds of flexibility, depending on how\ +you prefer to think of your funds: as virtual accounts, or as tags\ +associated with particular transactions. Your own tastes will decide which\ +is best for your situation.}
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