How to track a Tricount (IOU account) with partner in GnuCash

Question

My partner and I have a shared ledger on Tricount, an app used for calculating how much money one owes on shared expenses.

From the perspective of mechanics in GnuCash, the simplest way would be not to track this ledger as an account in GnuCash at all, but simply to record payments to or from my partner as Expense:Shared Expenses or suchlike.

But I want to maintain insight into the categories of these expenses, for my own Budgeting purposes.

Say my partner pays for a hotel booking for us, costing $105. How do I ensure that this adds $52.50 to Expenses:Entertainment:Travel and decreases the balance of the Tricount account in GnuCash by the same amount? The best I can think is to enter a decrease of $105 in the 'Tricount' asset account, and split the transaction to include a decrease of $52.50 (half) in the 'Travel' expenses account. What do I record the other $52.50 as?

I could have the specifics of what I am trying to achieve all wrong. If anyone has found a satisfactory way of tracking something like Tricount or SplitWise in GnuCash while preserving expense categories for budgeting, I'd love to hear it.

Greg Schmidt · Answer

I think that you need to decide whether you are using GnuCash to track your personal finances or tracking the pooled finances of a couple.  From your example, I gather that you are using GnuCash to track your own finances.

In that case, I suggest that you create a GnuCash asset account called Tricount and use it to track the whole amount of any money that you put into pooled expenses, and your share of any benefits that you get out of the pooled arrangement.  We can assume that your partner will be contributing similar amounts (over time) and getting the same benefits out - because you're using Tricount to ensure that happens.

So if you pay for a $120 dinner for you and your partner, you would record a $120 cash payment into your Tricount account on GnuCash, and record a $60 expense for "Dining".  Your partner paid for accommodation, so (as you suggested) you record your share of the benefit in GnuCash; $52.50 expense against "Entertainment:Travel".

Under this method, the "Tricount" account in GnuCash will be debited by your contributions but not by your partner's.  Similarly, you will show only your half of the expenses, but not your partner's.  That's OK, because you're using GnuCash to keep track of your money and your expenses, and using the separate Tricount app to ensure that you and your partner contribute equally (over time) to shared expenses.  Your Tricount balance in GnuCash will go negative from time to time, depending upon which partner owes to whom.

How to track a Tricount (IOU account) with partner in GnuCash

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