Hi, I'd suggest having a sub-account for improvements.
Assets:House:Improvements While doing renovations, you increase the value of that account. Then if you later sell the house, you can work the differences and account for your profit/loss You can even track monthly depreciation if you use something like this: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/beancount/Fr4NNT9NBaA I'm doing exactly that for my car. Here is a direct excerpt from my file: 2017-04-12 * "The guy who fixes my car" "Change control arms, shock absorbers and accessories" Assets:Property:Lexus-RX400h:Parts 1147.90 BGN Expenses:Auto:Lexus-RX400h:Maintenance:Labor 300.00 BGN Liabilities:Credit-Card 2017-04-12 * "Control Arms, Shock absorbers and accessories" "Depreciation" amortize_months: 36 Expenses:Auto:Lexus-RX400h:Maintenance:Parts 1147.90 BGN Assets:Property:Lexus-RX400h:Parts 2017-02-01 * "Lexus RX400h" "Depreciation" amortize_months: 24 Expenses:Auto:Lexus-RX400h:Depreciation 6500 BGN Assets:Property:Lexus-RX400h As you can see, I depreciate both the improvements (parts) and the main car account. The idea is to depreciate in such a way that the total balance of the parent car account will match the price at which I will finally sell it. When this happens, I'll come back and fix these depreciation transactions retrospectively, so that they match exactly what happened. I already converted my previous car to this way of accounting and it worked wonderfully. Of course, for a house I'd have a commodity "HOUSE" as discussed earlier, but this doesn't really change the whole idea. You can adjust the "house" and "improvements" accounts in such a way that best makes sense to you. Don't forget that improvements also depreciate over time (as I have shown for my car). I hope this helps. Best regards, Metin On Tue, Oct 10, 2017 at 9:34 PM, yegle <[email protected]> wrote: > When you buy a house > > 2000-01-01 * "buy a house" > Assets:Bank:Account -100,000 USD > Assets:House 1 HOUSE @100,000 USD > > When you spend money improve it > > 2001-01-01 * "remodel" > Assets:Bank:Account -1000 USD > Assets:House 1000 USD > > In the end when you sell the house > > 2002-01-01 * "sell" > Assets:House -1 HOUSE @200,000 USD > Assets:House -1000 USD <-- manually specify all the cost you spent on > the house so the balance would be 0 after this transaction > Assets:Bank:Account 200,000 USD > Income:House:PL <-- absorb unbalanced numbers here, this is your > profit/loss from the buying-selling of the house > > > On Tue, Oct 10, 2017 at 10:23 AM, Cary Kempston <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> I have a question that I haven't seen asked before, and I'm wondering >> how best to approach since I'm sure someone's dealt with this before. >> >> Based on previous posts to the list [1] I track the value of my house >> as an asset (e.g. "MAIN-ST-123") and occasionally add price directives >> to update the price. We're planning on doing some major improvements >> such as adding air conditioning that will increase the value of the >> house. It's easy to update the price, but what's the best way to >> track the cost of the improvement (the other leg of the transaction >> where I pay the contractor)? I'd rather not book it as an Expense >> since that will throw my income statement off. Should it be booked >> against an Equity account instead, like this, along with a new price >> directive? >> >> 2017-10-01 * "install air conditioning" >> Assets:Bank:Checking -5,000.00 USD >> Equity:Main-St-123:Capital-Improvements >> >> The other reason I'd like to track this is that it increases the cost >> basis of the house, which I'd like to track for when we sell it. >> >> Thanks, >> Cary >> >> [1] https://groups.google.com/d/msg/beancount/bw6xa-xa7Kc/Hm-Igmq1CwAJ >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Beancount" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/ms >> gid/beancount/CAN3-EDUYkXoBoYSkZxcCvZmSXa0s2qKyyLdDQM37EN1ht >> 4xe7Q%40mail.gmail.com. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > > > -- > Yuchen Ying > https://about.me/yegle > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Beancount" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/ > msgid/beancount/CAFL5w3VHAhONn2gU%2BbNpVf2UAJ2rDaEOg_ > gnN5hNfjLsBxXFeQ%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/CAFL5w3VHAhONn2gU%2BbNpVf2UAJ2rDaEOg_gnN5hNfjLsBxXFeQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Beancount" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/CAEk80bnyKmgNU-D33qc27kRhFRkP0KJQWK-RL0jf4Ai%2BzQ-47Q%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
