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Thanks for this outline. I've been a happy user of Ledger for several months now, but have been stymied about how to model a scenario in which several family me

Thanks for this outline. I've been a happy user of Ledger for several months now, but have been stymied about how to model a scenario in which several family members pay me in advance for a bill we collectively owe that's payable in the future, and in which their payments end up in my checking account. I now see that I should have set up the future sum payment as a local, temporary liability, each family member's deposit payments to me as a local, temporary asset other than my checking account (making my local checking balance diverge from that reported by my bank -- but to my benefit!), then the future sum payment as a transfer from the local temporary asset to the local temporary liability, and bringing all accounts to their correct balances and realigning them with my bank. So, again, thanks a lot for that last line, which helped me out.

maxerickson 8y ago
You could use virtual accounts for that, posting the received funds to your checking account and also to a virtual account that you eventually balance with the purchase (which would also have both real and virtual postings).
- gglitch 8y ago
  Thanks. I've had a hard time understanding the documentation on virtual accounts, but I'll have another look at it.
- smichael 8y ago
  It's easy to confuse "virtual accounts" (imaginary accounts or subaccounts) with "virtual postings" (unbalanced postings), but remember these are different things with different uses. You can post to either kind of account with either kind of posting.
Jtsummers 8y ago
I'd want to keep my checking account in ledger and real world matching. So either use a virtual account to indicate that some money, while existing in checking, is actually allocated to something else (this is a budget, basically). You can also create asset accounts for what people owe you. Once they pay you you move it from what they owe you to your checking account. For this one, you might have a couple transactions like: 2018/06/01 Roommate owes me Assets:Accounts Receivable 100.00 USD Income:Roommate 2018/06/06 Roommate paid me Assets:Checking 100.00 USD Assets:Accounts Receivable You can drill down another level to add who owes you the money, or perhaps tag it. The end result is that your checking account is always accurate. Then, as maxerickson says, use virtual accounts to handle mark where the needs to go next or what it's intended for. Also examine ledger's budgeting capabilities for this. https://www.ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Effective-Dates https://www.ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Effective-Da...
- gglitch 8y ago
  Thanks for the detailed recommendations! I've read the documentation on virtual accounts but haven't wrapped my mind around them yet. I'll have another go at it.

maxerickson 8y ago

You could use virtual accounts for that, posting the received funds to your checking account and also to a virtual account that you eventually balance with the purchase (which would also have both real and virtual postings).

gglitch 8y ago
Thanks. I've had a hard time understanding the documentation on virtual accounts, but I'll have another look at it.
smichael 8y ago
It's easy to confuse "virtual accounts" (imaginary accounts or subaccounts) with "virtual postings" (unbalanced postings), but remember these are different things with different uses. You can post to either kind of account with either kind of posting.

Jtsummers 8y ago

I'd want to keep my checking account in ledger and real world matching. So either use a virtual account to indicate that some money, while existing in checking, is actually allocated to something else (this is a budget, basically). You can also create asset accounts for what people owe you. Once they pay you you move it from what they owe you to your checking account. For this one, you might have a couple transactions like: 2018/06/01 Roommate owes me Assets:Accounts Receivable 100.00 USD Income:Roommate 2018/06/06 Roommate paid me Assets:Checking 100.00 USD Assets:Accounts Receivable You can drill down another level to add who owes you the money, or perhaps tag it. The end result is that your checking account is always accurate. Then, as maxerickson says, use virtual accounts to handle mark where the needs to go next or what it's intended for. Also examine ledger's budgeting capabilities for this. https://www.ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Effective-Dates https://www.ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Effective-Da...

gglitch 8y ago
Thanks for the detailed recommendations! I've read the documentation on virtual accounts but haven't wrapped my mind around them yet. I'll have another go at it.