I feel like I have too many sub-accounts

[melb...@gmail.com]

Hello,

I am hoping to understand how other folks setup their accounts/sub-accounts and from it see if I can do something better to layout my accounts. Of course, there is no write or wrong answer and I can do whatever I wish. 

I feel inundated by the number of expense accounts I have and I am wondering if I can do something else - perhaps using tags. Though then I might just be moving the problem from one place to another.

Here is a sampling what just my Expenses account look like today

Expenses:Adjustment
Expenses:Auto
Expenses:Auto:Fees
Expenses:Auto:Gas
Expenses:Auto:Parking
Expenses:Auto:Repair and Maintenance
Expenses:Charity
Expenses:Clothes
Expenses:Depreciation
Expenses:Dining
Expenses:Entertainment
Expenses:Entertainment:Gaming
Expenses:Entertainment:Music and Movies
Expenses:Entertainment:Recreation
Expenses:Gifts
Expenses:Groceries
Expenses:Haircut
Expenses:Hobbies
Expenses:Home Security
Expenses:House:Appliances and Furniture
Expenses:House:Homeowner insurance
Expenses:House:Repair and Maintenance
Expenses:House:Repair and Maintenance:Front Lawn
Expenses:Insurance:Dental Insurance
Expenses:Insurance:Life Insurance
Expenses:Insurance:Medical Insurance
Expenses:Insurance:VDPI
Expenses:Insurance:Vision Insurance
Expenses:Interest:Mortgage Interest
Expenses:Internet
Expenses:Medical Expenses
Expenses:Miscellaneous
Expenses:Online Services
Expenses:Phone
Expenses:Public Transportation
Expenses:Rent
Expenses:Taxes
Expenses:Taxes:Federal Tax
Expenses:Taxes:Medicare
Expenses:Taxes:Property Tax
Expenses:Taxes:Social Security
Expenses:Taxes:State Tax
Expenses:Taxi
Expenses:Travel
Expenses:Utilities:Garbage Pickup
Expenses:Utilities:Gas and Electric
Expenses:Utilities:Water and Sewage

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2022-03-15, at 04:21, melb...@gmail.com <melb...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> I am hoping to understand how other folks setup their accounts/sub-accounts
> and from it see if I can do something better to layout my accounts. Of
> course, there is no write or wrong answer and I can do whatever I wish.
>
> I feel inundated by the number of expense accounts I have and I am
> wondering if I can do something else - perhaps using tags. Though then I
> might just be moving the problem from one place to another.
>
> Here is a sampling what just my Expenses account look like today

This doesn't look that bad, I guess I may have only slightly fewer of
them.

With Emacs ledger-mode and autocompletion, I don't think a large number
of accounts is a problem. OTOH, the question is, how _useful_ are these
"expense categories" to you. I used to keep much more detailed books
until it dawned on me that I _never_ actually used many of the fine
distinctions...

So the real question is, how do you use Ledger, what reports do you
generate and what information is _really_ valuable to you.

Best,

--
Marcin Borkowski
http://mbork.pl

[o1bigtenor]

On Mon, Mar 14, 2022 at 10:21 PM melb...@gmail.com <melb...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello,
> I am hoping to understand how other folks setup their accounts/sub-accounts and from it see if I can do something better to layout my accounts. Of course, there is no write or wrong answer and I can do whatever I wish.
>
> I feel inundated by the number of expense accounts I have and I am wondering if I can do something else - perhaps using tags. Though then I might just be moving the problem from one place to another.
>

Greetings

I will start by echoing Mr. Marcin - - - - your books have to be
useful for YOU.
So - - - if you have too many accounts - - - well then you need less accounts.
How many accounts you need is highly dependent on how you're using
your books. So you need to answer that question for yourself first. Then, and
only then can you go on to check your list of account.

Just for perspective - - - my document with a list of all my accounts
- - - well it
does include explanations so every line isn't an account - - but - - -
the doc is
some 58 pages long. Before you shriek in horror - - - that covers some small
businesses and my personal stuff. Its that detailed because I really do want
to know where the money goes and all the accounts make for great clarity.
Are all the accounts necessary - - - - well there are about some few hundred
accounts - - - the rest are subaccounts.

Its all about what works for you and your needs.

So - - - get creative - - - and - - - - when you're done with that - -
- why let us
know what you did and how your changes helped you. Then not only do you
benefit but then others here will get the benefit of your experimenting.

This list is a wonderful tool that I very much rely on for getting done what I
need done in my recordkeeping!!!

HTH

[al...@polyphase.ca]

+1 to "do what works for you".

With personal concerns spanning 4 countries and complicated tax reporting obligations in one, I have quite a number of accounts:

I live in country ZZ, own property in QQ and have investments or assets in YY and XX...

❯ for c in :ZZ: :QQ: :YY: :XX:; do echo -n $c" "; bean-report main.bean accounts | fgrep $c | wc -l ; done
:ZZ:      249
:QQ:      224
:YY:       28
:XX:        6

So ~250 accounts for my household tracking (family of 4), homeowner. Similar number for dealing with taxes in QQ. (this goes up annually as I make a new TY20XX hierarchy).

YY is where I used to live, and haven't cut all ties (some investments and a pension).

XX is just somewhere I have a bank account ...

Alan

[melb...@gmail.com]

thank you all