combination of two data files of different scope

[Dmitri Kourbatsky]

I keep data in two files:

• general_file, where I keep my accounts on cash basis (i.e. no debtors/liabilities, all cash expenses recognized immediately),
• project_file, with particulars about costs of a specific project.

general_file:

  ;entry in 'general' file reflects funds withdrawal

  2017-01-28 * "advance paid" "subcontractor_a" #building

    Assets:Bank                       -500 EUR

    Liabilities:Proprietor             500 EUR

       divert: True

project_file:

  ;project file has posting with costs of job done

  plugin "replace_account "{ 'tag':'building', 'account':'Liabilities:Subcontractor_a'}"

  include <general_file>

  2017-02-15 * "finished 1st stage of thermal insulation" "subcontractor_a"

    Liabilities:Subcontractor_a        -380 EUR

    Expenses:House_maintenance          380 EUR

This structure allows me to query either:

1. general_file where all expenses are treated in my case as withdrawals (this depends on accounting policy of course, YMMV), or
2. project_file, where
   - all cash withdrawals are debited to Liabilities account, which holds Dt/Ct balance from/due to subcontractor,
   - all expenses are recorded on accrual basis, and, as result, Expenses account holds relevant Dt amount.

This approach allows me to:

• decouple maintenance of records of two files, which belong to different scopes,
• have two different reports, each serving certain goals,
• avoid recording one transaction in both two files, should I decide to maintain completely separate files

I use modified plugin divert_expenses.py for this to work.

https://github.com/dimonf/lib_py/blob/c3c78c60832c9c97dc257fee9efd6b97659f0271/beancount/replace_account.py

[Martin Blais]

Awesome!
Thx for sharing

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