[Kmymoney] How to handle loans and budgets

[Cristian Oneț]

2012/2/1 Maximilian Schaufler <max.schaufler at bytedoc.net>:
>
> On 1 February 2012 04:43, Jack <ostroffjh at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>
>> ...
>>
>> If you simply assign a category (rent or apartment or ...) to the
>> transactions, you can then budget them.  You could even split the
>> transactions into an interest category and a category for principle.  You
>> can always assign a category to a transaction, even if you are transferring
>> money to another account and not just a payee (which is internally just a
>> different account.)   In fact, you say you have an "apartment project"
>> category - so you could use this category in a budget.  I'm not sure why you
>> think these transfers do not change any category, and I don't know if there
>> is a problem in translating terms, or there is a misunderstanding of how
>> KMyMoney works.  This does sound like an area to discuss more, and hopefully
>> find there is really a good solution for you.
>
>
> Ok, I'll try to simplify my description:
> I have a
> * regular bank account (A)
> * liability account, representing my loan account (L)
>
> For any payments I make or receive, each transaction in the ledger is
> assigned a category (or multiple if split transaction is done).
> My liability/loan account's balance is currently showing the whole open
> amount of the loan I have from my bank.
> Every payment I make on that loan (called a principle, as I take it), I
> enter as a transfer transaction from (A) to (L). In this transfer
> transaction there is no category, but instead the account to/from which the
> transfer is made.
>
> Am I missing the possibility to add a category here as well?
>

No, you are not missing anything. Actually what you've said until now
is the correct way to handle loans.

Unfortunately only income/expenses can be budgeted. This means that
you can budget only the interest+fees part of your loan without the
principal (the transfer between the asset and liability account).

As a workaround this I have several expense categories marked "(only
for budgeting)" and I assign the amounts needed for principal payment
in the budget for these categories but I never actually record a
transaction in these categories.

I know that it's a hack and can lead to misleading data in some places
but it's better then nothing and it can give an overview to your
budget considering the principal payments.

So the main answer to the subject of this thread is "that transfers
can't be budgeted right now".

Regards,
Cristian

> Max
>
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