I've run into a unique issue that I'm unable to find a solution for. I'd like to track the cost of item purchases without those items impacting existing accounts.

I've a need to track the cost of items purchased by others with their own funds. For reporting purposes I see a need to create a separate account to track such items. I created a liability account to track these costs then realized the balance of the account was impacting "Net Worth". The reason for recording this information is so that category reports may be generated. For example; I currently track fuel costs for myself. It would be beneficial to know what my wife spends on fuel for her vehicle. I don't track nor do we have a desire to track her income however we'd like to know what we spend on items like vehicle expenses, meals and travel.

If you know of a means by which I can do this, please let me know.

Regards

One way of solving this would be to create a liability account as you did and in addition the following things:

• Payee named "3rd party" or similar or even provide the actual names if you want
• An income category named "3rd party expenses"

Then for each transaction you want to track you do the following:

• Create a deposit transaction for the above mentioned payee in the liability account and assign it the income category created above
• Create a withdrawal transaction in the liability account and assign it the expense category (as you already did)

This should leave your net-worth unaffected as the balance of the liability account remains zero. Your reporting may have to be adjusted since you now see additional income and expenses which really don't exist.

Hope that helps.

ipwizard wrote:One way of solving this would be to create a liability account as you did and in addition the following things:

• Payee named "3rd party" or similar or even provide the actual names if you want
• An income category named "3rd party expenses"

Then for each transaction you want to track you do the following:

• Create a deposit transaction for the above mentioned payee in the liability account and assign it the income category created above
• Create a withdrawal transaction in the liability account and assign it the expense category (as you already did)

This should leave your net-worth unaffected as the balance of the liability account remains zero. Your reporting may have to be adjusted since you now see additional income and expenses which really don't exist.

Hope that helps.

Helpful indeed.

Would there be any negative effects if rather than creating two entries, I create one entry with two "Spilt" categories. One category for the 3rd Party expenses, the other for the 3rd party deposit. The net amount of the transaction would be zero.

Interesting. I see, you understood how this accounting stuff works I cannot immediately see any difference or problem. You can certainly give it a try in a little test file before you let it loose on your vital data collection.

ipwizard wrote:Interesting. I see, you understood how this accounting stuff works I cannot immediately see any difference or problem. You can certainly give it a try in a little test file before you let it loose on your vital data collection.

My tests result in what I see as a viable solution. Thanks for your help.