Questions tagged [double-entry]
Double-entry is an accounting technique in which every event is recorded in two separate accounts. The event is recorded in one account as a credit, and in the other account as a debit.
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Double-entry (GnuCash) tracking shared assets within a single bank account
I'm managing a bank account for a group of us. There is (say) $1,000 in the bank account (set up as a checking account under assets) - how should I manage the allocation of a quarter of the total to ...
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Why do we still need double-entry bookkeeping in the age of computers?
I recently learned a bit about double-entry bookkeeping and although I believe I understood the how I didn't really understand the why. At first it seems to me that splitting each account into debit ...
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Lemonade stand in ledger cli
The Accounting Game
There's a book that introduces accounting called The Accounting Game by Mullis and Orloff:
ledger-cli file
Here's one approach to implementing the transactions from chapter 1 in ...
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how to properly record details of big purchase into the ledger? [closed]
Suppose I bought the car for $10k. I would imagine that journal entry for the purchase would include $10k on debit and credit side and go to accounts like 'Payable' and 'Assets'.
Suppose I need to ...
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How to capture Treasury T-Bill reinvestment activity in GNUCash
I use GNUCash, I like it a lot. Double-entry is awesome but sometimes it's difficult to determine the "right way" to record something. I've recently started investing in some T-Bills and I'm ...
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Query about double entry going to wrong column
I have just started using GNU Cash and most accounts I have been able to set up without any major issues.
But have a query on how can we reverse columns for some entries?
Let me start with a couple of ...
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How can I track gift money in GnuCash?
I'm fairly new to GnuCash and this kind of accounting. I'm trying to work out how to receive gift money as cash and spend it via a credit card.
I've also started looking at reports so I can see how I'...
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Liability account for inventories sold but pending delivery [closed]
Forgive me if this is a stupidly basic question. I'm not a trained accountant, just a software developer. So the question is -
Is there a standard (or de facto standard) way for recording pending ...
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How to record currency conversion in a journal entry
I am keeping track of my personal finances in a physical accounting journal. At a currency exchange desk, I converted 100 CAD into 75 USD. How should I record this transaction in my journal? In double-...
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Tracking taxable reimbursement in double entry accounting with cash accounting (as employee)
Let's suppose we have the following events
2021-12-15: I paid $1000 rent from my checking account.
2022-01-15: I received $1000 in my checking account from my employer as the housing allowance (...
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What accounting entries should I make for writing off a personal loan?
I loaned my father $20. This is how I recorded the transaction in GnuCash:
Account
Debit
Credit
Assets:Loans:Father
$20
Assets:Banks:USD
$20
Now, I want to forgive the debt. What entries should I ...
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How to account for a transfer that includes a liability
I have been trying to figure out how to use GnuCash / double-entry accounting in order to correctly enter the following situation:
I have asset accounts for my bank account and for 529 accounts for my ...
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How do I record Purchased Annual Leave?
My employer has an arrangement where one can "purchase" annual leave. This works by giving you say 40 hours of additional annual leave to take whenever you like, and then over the course of ...
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Double entry bookkeeping - Record incoming money which I would hold temporarily as a custodian
My dad's clients often transfer payments, which they owe to my dad, into my bank account [for technical reasons, some payment types into my account are not currently available in my dad's]. After a ...
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How to balance out trading between different currencies and dividends on a ledger?
TL;DR: I'm wondering how should I balance out values when dealing with multiple currencies being traded over time along with normal expenses that might occur along the way, as well as transactions ...
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Double-entry accounting example for Christmas gift from family member
A family member, Sandra, pays $10 as a Christmas gift for Joe's daughter, Anne. Joe is learning accounting and records the entry as follows. Joe wants to check if the following entries are correct or ...
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How to account for human error?
Sometimes people make mistakes. The checkout process at stores often involves manual data entry which is error prone. For example, as a customer I could be charged $49.99 for a product priced $49.49.
...
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Am I correctly categorizing things wr/t the rules of double entry accounting?
I'm trying to bring some organization to my personal finances. I'm looking at tools like GnuCash, but I'd like to really understand how they work, and after reading bits and pieces about double entry ...
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Setting up and tracking internal funds in a double-entry system for personal finances
I am trying to properly set up some internal funds in a double-entry context for personal finances.
For example, I have a Home Improvement fund to which some variable amount of money may be added ...
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How to accommodate for bills payed on my behalf in book keeping
I track my expenses and assets using an android application. It allows for a system similar to double entry bookkeeping. Where a recorded transaction make appropriate changes in two accounts. (an ...
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Can a transaction in double entry bookkeeping have an odd number of entries? [closed]
I'm a software developer, and I'm writing a bookkeeping app for my personal finances and freelance work. It's working pretty well, but one point about double entry bookkeeping confuses me. The ...
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How to track money used for shared expenses against a personal loan?
I've recently (3 months ago as of writing this) got into proper double entry bookkeeping for my personal finances. I've been using GnuCash, though this pertains more to double entry practices than ...
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Double entry accounting - asset account [closed]
I understand a loan account of a customer is an asset account of the bank.
A credit to loan account by bank decreases asset account.
According to double entry accounting for every credit there should ...
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How to enter a tax credit/deduction/exemption in double entry system?
I started using GnuCash and have learned the basics of double entry bookkeeping for managing rental income. I have managed to create a working Chart of Accounts that works well and accurately (...
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At the end of a reporting period, how do I record increased/decreased share values?
How do I record changes in the values of shares that I hold at the close of a reporting period in double-entry accounting? I.e., what transactions are made?
I am interested in any standard or typical ...
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Accounting for dividends of stocks held for 3rd party
Assuming I hold a number of stocks in a brokerage account for a 3rd party which pays dividends. The broker automatically deducts taxes and debits the remaining money in the account. How do I ...
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How should I record a previously unrecognized asset?
I use double-entry accounting (with ledger-cli) for my personal finances. I recently found out that I had $40 stashed in one of my drawers, and I don't know when exactly I acquired them, or where I ...
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How should I record a reimbursement for college tuition?
My dad just gave me $4200 to pay for the college semester, and he expects nothing in return. I would like to correctly record this using double-entry bookkeeping.
Normally, I would just pay for ...
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How should I record a gift card?
I have received a $50 gift card for my birthday, and I've been thinking on how I should record it in my books, using double-entry accounting. I don't think it would make sense to classify as an ...
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What account should be debited using double entry accounting for a stock spinoff transaction
I use ledger for tracking my personal finances. I'm trying to record a transaction where a stock I owned spun off shares of another company. (The specific case I'm referring to is when BioTime spun ...
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Modelling bank account transfers with double entry accounting
I'm building a relational database to model double entry accounting.
Right now it's such that any attempt to enter an unbalanced transaction (where dr != cr) will be rejected; with this restriction, I'...
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GNUCash: Reimbursements from Friends
I just started using GNUCash to track my finances, and I have two hypothetical examples I'm not sure how to log.
Example 1
On Sunday, I made a 100$ purchase. Since I didn't have a credit card on hand,...
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How to track children's accounts as my own in double-entry accounting?
I track my finances in GnuCash which is a double-entry accounting system. My children each have a savings account.
I want to keep track of the children's savings accounts in GnuCash by pretending ...
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Double entry process to record 401k change in value
My Roth 401(k) statement shows the following fields:
Payroll Contributions (including employer match)
Change in Value
Dividends
Expenses
In double-entry accounting, is the "Change in Value" income ...
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Keeping track of birthday money with double-entry accounting
I'm trying to figure out how to keep track of my kids' birthday money in a double-entry accounting system (GnuCash).
Currently I am keeping track of the amounts as sub-accounts of my checking account ...
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Including benefits in kind within accounts
I'm producing accounts for a local political party using GNU Cash.
There are a lot of benefits in kind that we need to account for.
Previously I included these on a separate spreadsheet, but would ...
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Journal entries for payment of tuition fees [closed]
A student has total tuition fee of 8,000. The student paid 3,000 as a down payment and the journal entry is:
Cash 3,000
AR 5,000
Tuition Fee 8,000
But what if the student will pay 3,500 for ...
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What's the double-entry bookkeeping method for tracking a Safe-to-Spend balance and amounts saved towards goals and expenses?
The bank Simple has three great features:
Safe-to-Spend
Goals
Expenses
The Safe-to-Spend balance is pretty simple: it's just the balance in your checking account minus the total amount set aside for ...
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Question about double-entry accounting [closed]
Here's a typical statement on the subject from this SO post:
The logic, for those not familiar with accounting, is: money is not created nor destroyed, it is only transferred from account to another. ...
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How do I use a liability account (in ledger-cli)?
I don't think this is only applicable to the software, but it's the one that I'm using.
In the documentation it talks about using charitable giving (e.g. tithing) as a Liability.
An example for 10% ...
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double entry bookkeeping loan to myself
I have 3 accounts - savings, outgoing, and loan.
I have $100 in savings. I then receive $50 into savings. so far, so good.
Then I want to 'borrow' $25 from savings with the intention of paying it ...
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How to interpret equity
I understand Equity to be "Net Worth", as calculated by Assets - Liabilities. I also understand the "Expanded Fundamental Accounting Equation" to be
Assets + Expenses = Liabilities + Equity + Income
...
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Tracking GST/VAT from invoice to payment
Contrived example: Alice and Bob both work for Charlie, who runs a lawnmowing service. Charlie bills $100 plus 10% GST/VAT for the job. If Alice does the job, she gets $50 - if Bob does the job, he ...
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Accounting for monthly vested stock options as compenstation in GnuCash
I am working for a company that has recently gone public. Now I see a monthly accumulation of options vesting every month. I would like to account for these options as compensation in my accounts.
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How to account for transferring money from a USD account to a GBP account?
I am using ZipBooks online software for my bookkeeping, however I do not know how to approach the following situation.
I have 2 bank accounts; one in USD, the other in GBP, and I am transferring $...
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In double-entry book keeping, how should I track planned expenses
So, I'm working on getting a bit better at managing my household finances and am currently working to learn double-entry bookkeeping.
One thing I need to separate out and track a little better is ...
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Accrual accounting: how to implement prepaid tax
I am trying to put my personal finances in order and I figured that accrual accounting fits my needs for keeping a better track of my records. I am new to accrual accounting and while I think that I ...
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How to enter credit card "statement credits" (e.g. cash back) in double entry accounting? [duplicate]
A credit card statement credit is a reduction in liability, so I would think it's "income" of a sort.
But, I could also see it as a reduction in expense; for example, buying a plane ticket using a ...
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Do GnuCash Income entries ever stop contributing to the Income Account's total?
I'm building a personal budget in GnuCash and after entering my starting equity, I've added my new paycheck in the Income section of my budget. I've entered it as transferred to my Checking Account ...
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How to track multiple savings in a single bank account with double-entry accounting
I have multiple savings that I want to track, eg - new car, vacation, etc. I'm storing all the money for those in a single bank account. I'm not sure how to track this via double-entry bookkeeping. ...
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