[Kmymoney] Needing some guidance about accounts x categories x tags

[Michael Berger]

Hi Joao,
yes, you can have as many accounts as you need under assets and under 
liabilities as well.
Any transactions there can be deposits and/or withdrawals.
The main information available to you at this stage would then be:
- the amount of each transaction be it income or expenditure
- the balance of each account (for a chosen period of time)
- the Grand Total, i. e. the difference between income and expenditure 
(for that period)
- the payee (people who sent you money or received money from you).

Now, you may be satisfied with this. However, that information is far 
from being complete, in fact it is rather poor.

Best is to city an example:
I have a son who is heading for his Master in Linguistic in another City.
His monthly expenses run up to something between €750 and €900 and I 
have to make sure he is not running out of money.
Of course, a transaction may also be split and each split be given a 
different category!
As a millionaire I would probably not care how much he spends and what for.
But as a pensioner I want to know exactly where (my) money goes.
Here is where the *categories* come in very handy!

My sons bank account could be "Giro Mike" and every transaction entered 
there would be assigned to one of below categories.

This is how the category-structure of my son's income could look:
Mike
     Earnings from jobs
     Earnings from coaching
         Guitar and Piano
         Mathematics and Latin
     Erasmus scheme
     Money presents
               in EURO
               in USD
     Returns of money borrowed to friends
..etc, etc.

And this is how the category-structure of his expenditures could 
possibly look:
Mike
     Clothing
     Computer stuff
         hardware
         software
     Traveling home
     Food
     Master in Leipzig
         Furniture
         Room rental
         Phone and Internet
         Equipment and installations
         Traveling in Leipzig
         Learning materials and books
         Parties and pubs
         Other nonsense
         College tuition/fees
         Interest for KfW-Credit
     ..etc, etc.

So, if the category "parties and pubs" produces a red balance in his 
bank account "Giro Mike"  I will most probably be forced to take some 
immediate action.

The power of categorizing transactions becomes especially obvious when 
printing reports. It is essential for controlling purposes.

Hope I understood your needs. If not -  just ask.

Michael


On 10/08/2014 06:25 PM, Joao Roscoe wrote:
> Dear Srs,
>
> I'm a kmymoney beginner, trying to figure out the 
> accounts/categories/tags setup that would best fit my needs, and I'm 
> in need of some guidance.
> In gnucash everything is an account, while in kmymoney we have three 
> different ways to classify transactions. While tags are distinct in 
> the way that it will be possible to attach more than one tag to a 
> single transaction, the difference between accounts and categories is 
> not clear for me, so far. I could, for instance, have two accounts 
> under liabilities - bills and loans - and several accounts under 
> bills, for instance cellphone, utility and gym membership. I could 
> also have all those as categories, and have all transactions in single 
> checkings account. What would be the sensible approach?
>
> Best regards,
> Joao
>
>
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