Here is how I would have personally done it (I am not a double accounting
expert)
Assets are money you own
Liabilities are money you owe
So, in your case, up to the real payment, the Assets balance should not
change.
And every week, the Liabilities should increase.
Here is ledger file I would have written:
2012/08/24 BABYSITTER TRANSFER
Expenses:Babysitter $50
Liabilities:Payable:Babysitter
2012/08/31 BABYSITTER TRANSFER
Expenses:Babysitter $50
Liabilities:Payable:Babysitter
2012/09/07 BABYSITTER TRANSFER
Expenses:Babysitter $50
Liabilities:Payable:Babysitter
2012/09/14 BABYSITTER TRANSFER
Expenses:Babysitter $50
Liabilities:Payable:Babysitter
2012/09/14 ATM WITHDRAWAL
Expenses:Cash $50
Liabilities:Payable:Babysitter $200
Assets:Banking:Checking $-250
Every week, $50 is set aside in an account of money you owe.
The day of the real payment, $250 is extracted from ATM. $200 for your
payable, and $50 as cash.
When you do your balance (always including both Assets and Liabilities),
you always know what is your situation:
$ ledger -f ~/baby bal Assets Liabilities --end=2012/09/13
$-150 Liabilities:Payable:Babysitter
$ ledger -f ~/baby bal Assets Liabilities
$-250 Assets:Banking:Checking
On Friday, September 14, 2012 3:33:23 PM UTC+2, Jesse Rosenthal wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> Every week, I pay my babysitter a regular amount of cash: let's say
> $50.00. I don't want to withdraw this from my checking account until
> it's time to pay it, since it's insecure to keep cash lying around. But
> I also want to see it in a different account so I can be sure not to
> spend it. I also still have to be able to register the real ATM
> withdrawal from checking account correctly.
>
> My first inclination would be to do something like the following, with
> virtual postings (there will be three Fridays between this paycheck and
> the next one):
>
> 2012/09/13 BABYSITTER TRANSFER
> [Assets:Babysitter Money] $50
> [Assets:Babysitter Money] $50
> [Assets:Babysitter Money] $50
> [Assets:Banking:Checking]
>
> 2012/09/14 ATM WITHDRWL
> ;; $50 of spending money
> Expenses:Cash $100
> [Assets:Babysitter Money] $-50
> Assets:Banking:Checking
>
>
> 2012/09/14 BABYSITTER
> Expenses:Babysitter $50
> Expenses:Cash
>
>
> (I know I shouldn't be transfering from an expense, but it makes cash
> easier to deal with.)
>
> Now, this does what I want when I run it without "-R":
>
> $ ledger reg "Checking"
> 12-Sep-13 BABYSITTER TRANSFER [Ass:Banking:Checking] $-150
> $-150
> 12-Sep-14 ATM WITHDRWL Asset:Banking:Checking $-50
> $-200
>
> That is, it sees my checking account as having $200 less than when I
> started: the $150 set aside for the babysitter, and the $50 for myself.
>
> The problem, though, comes when I run it with "-R":
>
> $ ledger reg "Checking" -R
> 12-Sep-14 ATM WITHDRWL Asset:Banking:Checking $-50
> $-50
>
> So it doesn't take the virtual $150 out. Good. But it also only takes
> out $50 for the ATM withdrawal. If I'm not using the virtual postings,
> shouldn't my ATM withdrawal be $100? That's how much money I *really*
> took out of my checking account? It still seems to be balancing the
> virtual transaction even when I ask it to only look at real
> transactions.
>
> The end result is that things don't balance to zero:
>
> $ ledger bal -R
> $-50 Assets:Banking:Checking
> $100 Expenses
> $50 Babysitter
> $50 Cash
> --------------------
> $50
>
> Am I using virtual transactions wrong in this case, is this just not a
> situation they can handle, or is this a bug?
>
> Thanks, as always,
> Jesse
>
