Tracking Gift Cards
Joel
Am trying to use Quicken 2000 to keep track of the assorted retail
gift cards we received for Christmas (i.e. Target, JC Penney).
Ideally I could create an asset entitled "Gift Certificates" with
sub-assets for each gift card. When we used the gift card, the
transactions would then flow through the assorted cashflow/spending
reports (similar to cash/crediting/credit cards).
One idea would be creating multiple cash accounts, one for each gift
card. However, as we have several gift cards, I am hoping to in some
manner group the accounts into one "Gift Card" account (for a more
concise balance sheet).
Any ideas would be appreciated.
Joel
Dick Weaver
I use one account "Prepaid & Memo" for similar things. For example, a
prepaid phone card begins with a trasfer from credit-card account. A
gift card, your case, would begin with a deposit "incomming gifts". For
each transaction I place both the identiry (MCI 575 for example) and
the remaining balance in the memo field (I only do this once a month for
phone cards). The Quicken account balance thus has the total of all
such prepaid - or gift - items and I have the individual balances
without clutter (or, as you say, "more concise").
There are some philosophical considerations to the entries you make.
Assume that grandmother1 gives you a $40 gift card, which you spend on a
shirt, and grandmother2 gives you a $40 shirt. What do you want your
quicken entries to reflect?
- that you spent $40 on clothing?
- that your wardrobe has $80 more in it than before Christmas?
- that you had $40 or $80 income from gifts?
- that you had no such income, but that total expenses included a $40
credit?
You might conclude, for example, that cash gifts should be treated like
non-cash gifts. In that case the two quicken entries for the shirt
would be:
incomming-gifts $40
incomming-gifts -40 memo: shirt purchase
You've tracked the gift card without otherwise affecting expense/budget
reports.
Have fun.
dick w
Barbara Needham
Gift cards I would suppose could be treated like Cash, with perhaps a
name as Gift Card and then call it a cash account.
You put in to start with the balance that is in all your gift cards
totalled together, and then each time you spend one you put what you
spent with the name of the card. Or if you want detailed of what came on
each card, start with a zero balance and put in as "in your wallet" each
card by itself.
If you get change from the card, that shouldn't be a problem as the
remainder will stay in the account when you put in what you spent.
If you have to spend extra money to get what you want, and it comes from
your pocket, you could either put in that amount or just ignore it if
you don't ordinarily keep a cash account.
At the end you should have a balance of zero if you keep track of
everything, or a positive or negative balance which represents the
amount of cash in or out of your pocket.
You could use the name of the gift card in the description and then the
category could be whatever you spent it on. The category for the income
side would, to me, be gift received.
If you wanted detail, in a report, subtotal by description.
--
Barbara Needham
Zorian Pinsky
feature was available with Q2000 and was it available with basic version as
well as with a deluxe one.
Zorian
"Joel" <sor...@swbell.net> wrote in message
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Fred
everything. So if one of us use a cash card, a deposit is made to the
perspective cash account for the amount of the purchase. I categorize the
deposit under "Other income: Gift"
-Fred
"Joel" <sor...@swbell.net> wrote in message
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TinVT
Sharpie instead of making busy work?
The cards are temporary - tossed when the $ wad is gone. Not income, not
budget spending - gifts. Meant to be freebies. Mad money.
"Joel" <sor...@swbell.net> wrote in message
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