... Or you could just put your tag into the split line memo field directly, without creating the Tags account.
If I were going down this approach (not saying I would), I'd probably create subaccounts for each tag I wanted, and then simply add the empty split for the specific tag: Tags:July Meeting Then, a number of reports can be run filtering on that account. I haven't tested this in any way, but believe it might work. David T. On July 28, 2026 7:09:14 AM GMT+05:30, Tom Route36 <[email protected]> wrote: >Hi Clint, > >I was looking back thru this email chain; and I noticed that earlier you were >saying that what you were really hoping for was that GnuCash had the ability >to do tagging. Well, it kinda does -- although not officially, and not in a >very straightforward manner. I personally don't have a need to do this on a >regular basis; but if you're looking for a way to tag transactions with some >sort of free-form tag names, this might work for you. > >Create a new asset account, and name it Tags. When you want to tag a >transaction, say a meeting room that was paid for with a credit card, add a >split entry to that transaction. The split you add will be a zero-amount; but >what it does is it gives you a dedicated Memo field. In that Memo field for >the Tags account, you can now type in your tag -- e.g., #July-Meeting. If you >add a similar split entry for every transaction related to the July Meeting, >you can then run a Transaction Report that only includes the Tags account, and >that you can filter for only those transactions that include the tag >#July-Meeting. > >It's not a very elegant solution; but it might help get you that tagging >feature that GnuCash lacks. Hope this helps a little. > >Tom > > > >On 07/25/2026 10:36 AM, Clint Chaplin wrote: >> Why? tl;dr: to implement the missing ability to have "job >> costing"/"tagging". >> >> Longer explanation: I keep the books for a group that has three meetings a >> year, in March, July, and November. Everything is focused on those three >> meetings, and very little happens (financially) outside of those meetings. >> At one point we had the ability to keep finances on a system that >> implemented tagging, and it was glorious! Unfortunately, the parent >> organization changed finance software several times since then, and none of >> the replacements have tagging. >> >> Each meeting has income (meetings fees, primarily), and expenses (F&B, AV, >> meeting rooms, etc). I'm keeping the finances in a rather elaborate >> spreadsheet that goes back to 2011 that we've sorta agreed will be our >> source of truth, but we want to switch to something more open and portable. >> >> I was hoping that with Gnucash I could use an account tree that started >> with the year, then the meeting, then the associated income and expenses, >> to sorta implement tagging. But it is not to be. Beancount is an option >> that has been suggested that actually has tagging, but I have other issues >> with its philosophy. >> >> >_______________________________________________ >gnucash-user mailing list >[email protected] >To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: >https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user >----- >Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. >You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
