From 9b653f66ee63566c7580e1e907e67336289e114e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: John Wiegley Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2005 06:35:46 +0000 Subject: doc update --- ledger.texi | 85 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-- 1 file changed, 83 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/ledger.texi b/ledger.texi index e099e4a5..a5fc7b3e 100644 --- a/ledger.texi +++ b/ledger.texi @@ -2610,6 +2610,7 @@ For this entry, Ledger will figure out that $-23.00 must come from * Accounts and Inventories:: * Understanding Equity:: * Dealing with Petty Cash:: +* Working with multiple funds and accounts:: * Archiving previous years:: * Virtual transactions:: * Automated transactions:: @@ -3125,7 +3126,7 @@ Clear as mud? Keep thinking about it. Until you figure it out, put @samp{-Equity} at the end of your balance command, to remove the confusing figure from the total. -@node Dealing with Petty Cash, Archiving previous years, Understanding Equity, Keeping a ledger +@node Dealing with Petty Cash, Working with multiple funds and accounts, Understanding Equity, Keeping a ledger @section Dealing with Petty Cash Something that stops many people from keeping a ledger at all is the @@ -3156,7 +3157,87 @@ the target account: This way, you can still track large cash expenses, while ignoring all of the smaller ones. -@node Archiving previous years, Virtual transactions, Dealing with Petty Cash, Keeping a ledger +@node Working with multiple funds and accounts, Archiving previous years, Dealing with Petty Cash, Keeping a ledger +@section Working with multiple funds and accounts + +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 expects to make +purchases or reserve 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: 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? + +Using a traditional finance package would require that money reside in +only one place. But there are really two views to the data: from the +account point of view, you want one set of reports; from the fund +point of view, another set entirely -- and yet both sets should +reflect the same expenses and incoming. It's just where the money +``resides'' that differs. + +This situation can be handled using virtual transactions 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 entry ensures that the +virtual transactions balance to zero. + +Now money can be spent directly from a fund: + +@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 will appear in terms of +the funds, income and expenses. If the @option{--real} option is +used, the report is in terms of the accounts. If more asset accounts +are needed as the source of a transaction, 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 + +@node Archiving previous years, Virtual transactions, Working with multiple funds and accounts, Keeping a ledger @section Archiving previous years After a while, your ledger can get to be pretty large. While this -- cgit v1.2.3