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> Honestly, it’s not as bad as it seems. For example if I grab some milk, I just drop the $1.99 in under the Food account shortly after I get home. Who just bu

> Honestly, it’s not as bad as it seems. For example if I grab some milk, I just drop the $1.99 in under the Food account shortly after I get home. Who just buys milk? I usually buy 10 to 40 things at the grocery store. This means I have to keep my receipt, enter each line item and figure out the per item sales tax. And if I forget once, it's all screwed up. Do most people track each item or do you make one entry for the whole grocery run? What do you do if you fail to enter something? How about failing to enter two or more things during a time period? When and how do you reconcile?

nickjj 9y ago
When you live within walking distance from a grocery store and enjoy walking then picking up 1 or 2 items isn't uncommon. But you do bring up a good point. When it comes to larger food / supply runs, I just put in the whole receipt as 1 entry. GnuCash has a "description" field for metadata. I usually just put in the store's name along with the receipt ID. Correcting a failure / mistake is easy because GnuCash lets you create, edit or delete entries from any date. If you forgot to put something in from 3 months ago but caught it on your bank statement later, you just plop in a new transaction with 3 months ago's date and it'll auto-adjust everything.
- vanderZwan 9y ago
  Does it keep track of edits?
  - nickjj 9y ago
    Not that I'm aware of. If you edit a previous transaction it will override it, so it's not technically an always "move forward" transaction log. I've never had it become a problem tho. I've made a few ninja edits over time and things line up.
mcguire 9y ago
Personally, I have a "Cash" expense account---when I withdraw money from a checking account, the transaction records it as being spent there. "Cash" ends up being one of my major expense report items, but I generally ignore it because it is all small transactions that aren't worth recording individually. For credit and debit cards, I hang onto the receipt and record it later. (I don't worry about being too detailed; all of my transactions at the local grocery store go into the "Groceries" expense account, even if I buy gas from their gas station.) I mostly use GC to track money moving into and out of my financial institution accounts. [Edit] And I do the reconciliation with my monthly statement. There's frequently a credit card transaction where I didn't get a receipt or something, but I've never had too much trouble tracking things down.
BeetleB 9y ago
My method: When I go to the grocery store checkout, I put groceries on the belt first. Then everything else. This ensures the top N items in the receipt are groceries. When I enter into GnuCash or whatever, I manually enter the non-grocery items (I often combine - so tissue boxes and detergents combined get just one entry in the category of "Supplies"). Once I've entered all non-grocery items, the "rest" is marked as groceries. Another hack: If I don't buy anything other than groceries from a grocery store, I just don't keep the receipt. When I reconcile with my credit card, all entries where I don't have the receipt are groceries. I do the same with gas stations, etc. Still a pain, though. I won't deny that.
marcosdumay 9y ago
Create a "groceries" account then. If your country is anything like mine, business can not even break the receipts over several account, so you ask for different receipts for equipment, and fill each one on the correct account. If you fail to enter things, you'll have to pay tax on them. It's not the end of the world, but not something you want to do often either.
JustSomeNobody 9y ago
I don't buy anything except groceries at the grocery store. So that's simple. But, let's say I go to Walmart, and I buy hosehold items and some socks. I would have to split that. I'm not real picky about taxes, so I usually just take out the amount of the socks and put that under clothes and the rest would go under hosehold.

nickjj 9y ago

When you live within walking distance from a grocery store and enjoy walking then picking up 1 or 2 items isn't uncommon. But you do bring up a good point. When it comes to larger food / supply runs, I just put in the whole receipt as 1 entry. GnuCash has a "description" field for metadata. I usually just put in the store's name along with the receipt ID. Correcting a failure / mistake is easy because GnuCash lets you create, edit or delete entries from any date. If you forgot to put something in from 3 months ago but caught it on your bank statement later, you just plop in a new transaction with 3 months ago's date and it'll auto-adjust everything.

vanderZwan 9y ago
Does it keep track of edits?
- nickjj 9y ago
  Not that I'm aware of. If you edit a previous transaction it will override it, so it's not technically an always "move forward" transaction log. I've never had it become a problem tho. I've made a few ninja edits over time and things line up.

mcguire 9y ago

Personally, I have a "Cash" expense account---when I withdraw money from a checking account, the transaction records it as being spent there. "Cash" ends up being one of my major expense report items, but I generally ignore it because it is all small transactions that aren't worth recording individually. For credit and debit cards, I hang onto the receipt and record it later. (I don't worry about being too detailed; all of my transactions at the local grocery store go into the "Groceries" expense account, even if I buy gas from their gas station.) I mostly use GC to track money moving into and out of my financial institution accounts. [Edit] And I do the reconciliation with my monthly statement. There's frequently a credit card transaction where I didn't get a receipt or something, but I've never had too much trouble tracking things down.

BeetleB 9y ago

My method: When I go to the grocery store checkout, I put groceries on the belt first. Then everything else. This ensures the top N items in the receipt are groceries. When I enter into GnuCash or whatever, I manually enter the non-grocery items (I often combine - so tissue boxes and detergents combined get just one entry in the category of "Supplies"). Once I've entered all non-grocery items, the "rest" is marked as groceries. Another hack: If I don't buy anything other than groceries from a grocery store, I just don't keep the receipt. When I reconcile with my credit card, all entries where I don't have the receipt are groceries. I do the same with gas stations, etc. Still a pain, though. I won't deny that.

marcosdumay 9y ago

Create a "groceries" account then. If your country is anything like mine, business can not even break the receipts over several account, so you ask for different receipts for equipment, and fill each one on the correct account. If you fail to enter things, you'll have to pay tax on them. It's not the end of the world, but not something you want to do often either.

JustSomeNobody 9y ago

I don't buy anything except groceries at the grocery store. So that's simple. But, let's say I go to Walmart, and I buy hosehold items and some socks. I would have to split that. I'm not real picky about taxes, so I usually just take out the amount of the socks and put that under clothes and the rest would go under hosehold.