4

In previous humble attempts to learning-the-ropes of household accounting (in conventional spreadsheet software) I used to have a column to hold the name of the counter-party, e.g. the supermarket chain or cafe or retail store etc.

In gnucash, options seem to be limited to what's already given (version 2.4.10 in Sept. 2013), namely and mainly

  • date
  • description
  • transfer
  • "amount" and the optional
  • num

see, for instance, here. As I don't have any practical use for the num column, I intend to use it as my name-of-counterparty column: luckily, it accepts alphanumeric characters, so it seems to do the trick.

Otherwise, I could open sub-accounts for my regular cafes and the chuck all occassional one-off cafes into a common account. But that seems over the top...

By making use of the (dormant) num column I can instead keep track of the cafes in which I drank most coffee (beancounters' delight! ;).

  • Can you see anything wrong with my reasoning?
  • Or would you say this is a legitimate / good use of the num column?
Improve this question
1
6

I use the description column for that. The good thing is GnuCash remembers your account-description-account combinations. So every time I add a transaction in my 'Cash in Hand' account with a description 'coffee', GnuCash automatically picks a transfer account based on last transaction history. Ofcourse, can change this to other as you wish but for me, it is a very good productivity feature.

Improve this answer
4
  • In what way does this answer my question, which is explicitly about the num column?
    – shoyu
    Jan 21 '14 at 6:09
  • Well, all I am saying is for naming counter-party, description column serves better. I am not sure either of what the num column is intended to do. hope it helps
    – Atif Shaikh
    Jan 21 '14 at 7:04
  • 3
    @shoyu The num column is used to write down the number of the check/invoice related to the transaction. While technically you can use it as you describe, it will not be as helpful as using the description/transfer combination - as Atif described in his answer. In fact, the way Atif described is the right way to do what you want to do.
    – littleadv
    Jan 21 '14 at 7:59
  • @littleadv Respectfully disagree.
    – shoyu
    Jan 21 '14 at 16:15

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.