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Posted by Joseph N. on January 5, 2008, 6:32 pm
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Perhaps someone here has insight or accounting experience to help with
this. I would like to track my child-related expenses with some
specificity in order to keep to a fairly detailed budget. They are
older children, so some expenditures are similar to mine (auto
insurance) while some are different (tuition). I just finished
setting up several subcategories under a broad child-related category,
mirroring the budget I am preparing. However, it occurred to me that,
perhaps, it would be better to group all auto insurance, for example,
together and to use a "child-related" class to separate off the stuff
for my kids. Is there any real advantage to doing it one way as
opposed to another? [QW06H&B]
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Posted by sharx35 on January 6, 2008, 12:13 am
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> Perhaps someone here has insight or accounting experience to help with
> this. I would like to track my child-related expenses with some
> specificity in order to keep to a fairly detailed budget. They are
> older children, so some expenditures are similar to mine (auto
> insurance) while some are different (tuition). I just finished
> setting up several subcategories under a broad child-related category,
> mirroring the budget I am preparing. However, it occurred to me that,
> perhaps, it would be better to group all auto insurance, for example,
> together and to use a "child-related" class to separate off the stuff
> for my kids. Is there any real advantage to doing it one way as
> opposed to another? [QW06H&B]
So, are you allocating some of your utility costs to your children? What
about mortgage interest? Groceries?
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Posted by Joseph N. on January 6, 2008, 12:34 am
Please log in for more thread options > So, are you allocating some of your utility costs to your children? What
> about mortgage interest? Groceries?
No, I'm describing only direct costs or otherwise separable costs.
Expenses, in other words, that benefit them directly and would not be
incurred but for them. So, I'm not including costs I would have
anyway, nor costs that benefit me that I might not incur but for them
(like my own travel expenses). I just need to track how much money is
going directly to them and in what categories. (One of the purposes
is tracking trouble spots, and another is heading in the direction of
allocating a lump sum that they would then budget and manage.) I
think I've decided that classes would not provide sufficient
information or benefit, although in a different situation I can see
how they would be more useful, e.g., if there were reporting or tax
issues. Comments?
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Posted by Steve Larson on January 6, 2008, 1:29 am
Please log in for more thread options I personally favor keeping a simpler category list, then using the classes
modifier to distinguish the transactions. Further, Q08 has expanded the
classes feature, now called "tags", to allow assigning multiple tags to a
single transaction. Since you are on Q06, perhaps the newer version could
lend more flexibility to handle your issue.
>> So, are you allocating some of your utility costs to your children? What
>> about mortgage interest? Groceries?
>
> No, I'm describing only direct costs or otherwise separable costs.
> Expenses, in other words, that benefit them directly and would not be
> incurred but for them. So, I'm not including costs I would have
> anyway, nor costs that benefit me that I might not incur but for them
> (like my own travel expenses). I just need to track how much money is
> going directly to them and in what categories. (One of the purposes
> is tracking trouble spots, and another is heading in the direction of
> allocating a lump sum that they would then budget and manage.) I
> think I've decided that classes would not provide sufficient
> information or benefit, although in a different situation I can see
> how they would be more useful, e.g., if there were reporting or tax
> issues. Comments?
>
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Posted by John Pollard on January 6, 2008, 10:23 am
Please log in for more thread options Steve Larson wrote:
>Further, Q08 has
> expanded the classes feature, now called "tags", to allow
> assigning
> multiple tags to a single transaction. Since you are on Q06,
> perhaps
> the newer version could lend more flexibility to handle your
> issue.
While I don't have Q2006, I do have Q2005 and Q2008, and the
treatment of "Tags" in Q2008 is little different than the
treatment of classes in Q2005, with the exception that "Tags"
can be displayed, entered and reported in a separate field from
the category.
I can assign multiple classes to a transaction in Q2005 and get
the same result as assigning multiple tags in Q2008: effectively
what happens is a new tag with subtags is implicitly created.
If a transaction has TagA and TagB assigned, it will appear in
reports, subtotaled by Tag, as a single tag: TagA:TagB. In
Q2005, it would have been ClassA:ClassB.
--
John Pollard
First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com
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