what to do if you run your own business, and you want to keep track of expenses made on your own behalf, while still tracking everything in a single ledger file? This is more complex, because you need to track two separate things: 1) The fact that the money should be reimbursed to you, and 2) What the expense account was, so that you can later determine where your company is spending its money.

This kind of posting is best handled with mirrored postings in two different files, one for your personal accounts, and one for your company accounts. But keeping them in one file involves the same kinds of postings, so those are what is shown here. First, the personal transaction, which shows the need for reimbursement:

2004/09/29 Circuit City Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ $100.00 Liabilities:MasterCard

This is the same as above, except that you own Company XYZ, and are keeping track of its expenses in the same ledger file. This transaction should be immediately followed by an equivalent transaction, which shows the kind of expense, and also notes the fact that $100.00 is now payable to you:

2004/09/29 Circuit City Company XYZ:Expenses:Computer:Software $100.00 Company XYZ:Accounts Payable:Your Name

This second transaction shows that Company XYZ has just spent $100.00 on software, and that this $100.00 came from Your Name, which must be paid back.

These two transactions can also be merged, to make things a little clearer. Note that all amounts must be specified now:

2004/09/29 Circuit City Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ $100.00 Liabilities:MasterCard $-100.00 Company XYZ:Expenses:Computer:Software $100.00 Company XYZ:Accounts Payable:Your Name $-100.00

To “pay back” the reimbursement, just reverse the order of everything, except this time drawing the money from a company asset, paying it to accounts payable, and then drawing it again from the reimbursement account, and paying it to your personal asset account. It’s easier shown than said:

2004/10/15 Company XYZ Assets:Checking $100.00 Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ $-100.00 Company XYZ:Accounts Payable:Your Name $100.00 Company XYZ:Assets:Checking $-100.00

And now the reimbursements account is paid off, accounts payable is paid off, and $100.00 has been effectively transferred from the company’s checking account to your personal checking account. The money simply “waited”—in both ‘ Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ ’, and ‘ Company XYZ:Accounts Payable:Your Name ’—until such time as it could be paid off.

The value of tracking expenses from both sides like that is that you do not contaminate your personal expense report with expenses made on behalf of others, while at the same time making it possible to generate accurate reports of your company’s expenditures. It is more verbose than just paying for things with your personal assets, but it gives you a very accurate information trail.

The advantage to keep these doubled transactions together is that they always stay in sync. The advantage to keeping them apart is that it clarifies the transfer’s point of view. To keep the postings in separate files, just separate the two transactions that were joined above. For example, for both the expense and the pay-back shown above, the following four transactions would be created. Two in your personal ledger file:

2004/09/29 Circuit City Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ $100.00 Liabilities:MasterCard $-100.00 2004/10/15 Company XYZ Assets:Checking $100.00 Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ $-100.00

And two in your company ledger file:

apply account Company XYZ 2004/09/29 Circuit City Expenses:Computer:Software $100.00 Accounts Payable:Your Name $-100.00 2004/10/15 Company XYZ Accounts Payable:Your Name $100.00 Assets:Checking $-100.00 end apply account

(Note: The apply account above means that all accounts mentioned in the file are children of that account. In this case it means that all activity in the file relates to Company XYZ).

After creating these transactions, you will always know that $100.00 was spent using your MasterCard on behalf of Company XYZ, and that Company XYZ spent the money on computer software and paid it back about two weeks later.

$ ledger balance --no-total

 $100.00 Assets:Checking 0 Company XYZ $-100.00 Assets:Checking $100.00 Expenses:Computer:Software $-100.00 Liabilities:MasterCard