"Purchased" leave hours

[brodie.b...@gmail.com]

New to Beancount, but already loving it! 

Automating imports from PDF statements was surprisingly straightforward. Using subprocess.run() to calling tabula-java with the --guess flag yields excellent results.

Now I am tackling salary postings. I would like some advice on how to handle "purchased leave". 

Purchased leave allows you to receive a credit of leave hours from your employer. This is paid back over some agreed time period with deductions from your periodic salary. The purchased leave hours themselves are spent as time off during the aforementioned time period. I am struggling with how to best model these transactions - primarily the account type, currency and conversions. I have no accounting experience, but the Beancount models and documentation really gel with my engineering brain. 

• I think that purchased leave might be classed a liability. Is this correct? My reasoning is that purchased leave hours are "credited" to me by the employer.
• I would like to keep the purchased leave account in a time-based currency. The cookbook talks about this, and makes sense given how I think about spending leave: in time, not money.
• However, deductions for leave are shown in dollars in the pay stub. This clearly corresponds to some fractional amount of leave hours paid back.
• Purchased leave hours are credited up front. The amount (in dollars) to be paid back is agreed at that time, as well as the payback duration and pay deduction amounts.
• So, should I create a liability account for purchased leave, with a time-based currency (say, hours)?
• Should I "price" the conversion between hours and dollars at that agreement date?
• Will this allow me to post the purchased leave pay deduction in dollars, as seen on the pay stub, and auto-convert to "hours paid back"?

[Martin Blais]

On Sat, May 16, 2020 at 6:55 PM <brodie.b...@gmail.com> wrote:

New to Beancount, but already loving it! 

Automating imports from PDF statements was surprisingly straightforward. Using subprocess.run() to calling tabula-java with the --guess flag yields excellent results.

Thx

Tabula is great indeed, though I think we can do better eventually.

(Many have solved this problem in the commercial space)

 

 

Now I am tackling salary postings. I would like some advice on how to handle "purchased leave". 

Purchased leave allows you to receive a credit of leave hours from your employer. This is paid back over some agreed time period with deductions from your periodic salary. The purchased leave hours themselves are spent as time off during the aforementioned time period.

So for example, you just joined a company, but would like to take vacations before you've accrued the necessary number of vacation hours, is that right, so they allow you to take them but you'll pay for them later in foregone income?

 

I am struggling with how to best model these transactions - primarily the account type, currency and conversions. I have no accounting experience, but the Beancount models and documentation really gel with my engineering brain. 

• I think that purchased leave might be classed a liability. Is this correct? My reasoning is that purchased leave hours are "credited" to me by the employer.

Sounds right to me. It's something you owe. You've spend it as vacation (an expense, a positive number) and balance it with a credit against your employer (a liability, a negative number).

 

• I would like to keep the purchased leave account in a time-based currency. The cookbook talks about this, and makes sense given how I think about spending leave: in time, not money.

Sure, I use "vacation hours" for accrual (VACHR). It's a little funny as when my salary increases, the price of those hours goes up a bit. It works. It's a bit annoying to see my balance sheet go down whenever I take (spend those hours into) a long vacation, but it's accurate.

• However, deductions for leave are shown in dollars in the pay stub. This clearly corresponds to some fractional amount of leave hours paid back.

Use a conversion at the price used.

 

• Purchased leave hours are credited up front. The amount (in dollars) to be paid back is agreed at that time, as well as the payback duration and pay deduction amounts.
• So, should I create a liability account for purchased leave, with a time-based currency (say, hours)?

I would do that.

 

• Should I "price" the conversion between hours and dollars at that agreement date?

I think so.

• Will this allow me to post the purchased leave pay deduction in dollars, as seen on the pay stub, and auto-convert to "hours paid back"?

Send some example transactions and we can comment. It'll be much more than words can do.

 

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[Martin Michlmayr]

* brodie.b...@gmail.com <brodie.b...@gmail.com> [2020-05-16 15:55]:

> Now I am tackling salary postings. I would like some advice on how
> to handle "purchased leave".

The first question you have to ask yourself is whether you want to
track hours/days of unused leave in beancount at all. If you don't,
just use the reduced salary amount as income and be done.

> - I think that purchased leave might be classed a liability. Is this

> correct? My reasoning is that purchased leave hours are "credited" to me by
> the employer.

Maybe I misunderstand but the purchased leave itself would be an
asset. The other side would be a reducation in salary or a liability
(you have to give salary back to your employer).

> - I would like to keep the purchased leave account in a time-based

> currency. The cookbook talks about this, and makes sense given how I think
> about spending leave: in time, not money.

Yeah, just use @

> - So, should I create a liability account for purchased leave, with a
> time-based currency (say, hours)?

It's an asset. You're buying time from your employer. You then own
an asset: time you can spend as you wish.

> - Should I "price" the conversion between hours and dollars at that
> agreement date?

Yes.

> - Will this allow me to post the purchased leave pay deduction in

> dollars, as seen on the pay stub, and auto-convert to "hours paid back"?

Use @

--
Martin Michlmayr
https://www.cyrius.com/