Spend from Sub Account

1

Since I am a new user I can only post 3 images per post so this will be spread across 4 posts (hopefully).

I am only using one bank account with my business setup.

I’ve created sub accounts in the Chart of Accounts. These sub accounts are all referring to the money in the single bank account. They are basically “envelopes” where I allocate money. The plan was that they would show the remaining totals available to spend from each sub account so that I don’t over spend.

I’ve set up the 3 sub accounts to have a starting balance of $100 each:

  • Seeds: $100
  • Soil Amendments: $100
  • Tools: $100

I’ve also created the same accounts in the P&L statement to categorize my transactions.

Here’s what my Chart of Accounts looks like to start with:

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Here’s what my single bank account looks like after making the first $50 transaction:

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And here’s a list of the bank transactions:

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2

And the detail of that first transaction. The account that it is being pulled from is Expense: Seeds

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The Problem

While it correctly shows where the expense came from in my Summary it does not show that money was spent from my Assets: Seeds account. My Summary page shows the following:

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But if I change the transaction to spend from the Assets: Seeds account like this:

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3

If you want to track the separate pools of money, then you need to create those individual pools as “Bank Accounts” and then make your Receive/Spend Money transactions from those pools.

On the Summary tab you can still show the pools (bank accounts) individually on the summary tab (as you currently are) or you can show them under one heading (Checking Account) and then by clicking on the Bank Transaction tab you can see the individual pool balances.

So the first question is - do you want to see the pool balances individually on the summary tab or do you want to see the pool balances on the Bank Account tab and only see the combined balance of the pools on the Summary tab ? Then we can progress from there.

4

Here’s the rest of my post since I can only post 3 images per post:

Then the Summary shows the the Assets: Seeds account with $50 extra:

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The Less Than Ideal Solution

If I make each of the sub accounts under Assets into Control Accounts and then make Bank Accounts for each of those accounts it shows correctly.

Changing Assets: Seeds account to be a Control Account made up of Bank Accounts

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Making a new Bank account called Checking—Seeds with the control account of Assets: Seeds:

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5

Now I have two bank accounts:

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Changing the $50 transaction to spend from the Checking—Seeds Bank Account and spend from the Expenses: Seeds account:

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And now it show’s up how I would expect. But I think that this isn’t the ideal way todo this since in reality I only have one bank account and the new Checking—Seeds bank account is really just part of the main Checking account.

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I’ve tried playing around with Journal Entries and using Special Accounts but in the end it would still only show the transaction on either the Assets side or the Less: Expenses side and not both.

Any suggestions on a better way to do this or is this the way to approach this?

Thanks!

6

Sorry I wasn’t able to finish posting my post until just a few minutes ago.

I would like to see the pool balances individually in the Summary tab. So you would recommend making Bank Accounts for each of these pools as one way to accomplish this? Didn’t know if I was doing something backwards.

7

You can only spend and receive from cash or bank accounts. Control accounts are just a way of making them show differently on the balance sheets.

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