I agree.
Some years ago, there were a few threads here that delved into various
means of implementing an envelope method in GnuCash and my personal
take-away was, while it can be done, the only sane method is lots of
work. (you mention a not so sane method, or rather, one that could
quickly drive one insane trying to make sense of an error 6-12 months
later.)
Ideally, I strive to mimic real world transactions in my books. So if I
have a deposit I also want to budget the future use of, I don't try to
do that all in one transaction.
First, I'd record the real world transaction, the deposit, as a single
event between whatever other account and Checking/Savings.
Then in a separate transaction I would record 'budgeting' transactions
dividing that deposit amongst various 'envelope' accounts. However, I'd
*not* transfer the money out of the real checking/savings account, but
create an entirely 'outside layer' of transactions for budgeting purposes.
When I spend funds, I'd record the real-world expense between
Checking/Savings & the related Expense account(s). And then also record
the shifting of budgeted funds between my envelope accounts separately.
This *could* be done with simply adding splits each time, but it is
safer to use separate transactions.
That way, no changes to the envelope related accounts would affect my
real-world accounts.
This is of course, lots of work. This type of budgeting should probably
be programmed into the budget module itself. (or a separate module) One
might just as well use an outside budgeting app or a spreadsheet. The
advantage to using GnuCash for this, is for the convenience of using
only one app, and having some built-in reporting capability. Some might
think that not so convenient after trying it.
-----
I'm certainly not stumping for any other software project, but I've
investigated some and MoneyWell for Mac seems to be designed from the
ground up for the envelope method. (they call 'envelopes' 'buckets'
instead) It was also designed for non-physical transaction tracking to boot.
I may still employ this app for day-to-day transactions, and simply
export that data to GnuCash for my complete books.
Unfortunately, it is not open source or available for other systems, but
it does illustrate the idea nicely of how the restricted funds method
can work well.
Regards,
Adrien
On 10/12/22 8:04 AM, John Layman wrote:
The moment you split a large deposit between multiple sub-accounts you have
fragmented the correspondence between the bank statement and your books. And,
as you note, transferring funds between the sub-accounts introduces
transactions that have nothing whatsoever to do with the account as the bank
views it. These differences in semantics necessitate some juggling in order
to reconcile the account. You may be able to handle this scheme given a low
volume of deposits and withdrawals to a savings account, but someone trying the
same concept for implementing an envelope budgeting scheme would have a real
mess on their hands.
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