Credit Card Payments and Budgets

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fbarcellona
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Credit Card Payments and Budgets

Post by fbarcellona »

I am new to MMEX and am having issues on how to set up credit card payments so it shows up correctly in my budget. Can I get some suggestions on how others have handled this. Thanks so much for any help!!
MartinArmstrong
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Re: Credit Card Payments and Budgets

Post by MartinArmstrong »

@fbarcellona It's not clear from your question exactly what issues you are having.

However, if you are just wondering how to handle transactions in a credit card account (i.e. withdrawals) and how to show a transfer from your bank account when you pay off the credit card bill, then you may want to study these two posts:

viewtopic.php?p=22054 Note the use of withdrawals and transfers.

viewtopic.php?p=22008 Follow the link to the github post mentioned and read the advice there.


If they don't answer your question, then please come back and ask again - but with a more details about what you are trying to achieve.
magnulu
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Re: Credit Card Payments and Budgets

Post by magnulu »

Hello, also a new user here with a question that is probably similiar. If not; sorry to hijack the thread, I will gladly move it to a new one.

Case: Getting to know where my money goes! I have:
- One bank (checkings) account
- One credit card AKA The Lifesafer
- One credit card I want to close AKA The Nightmare

The first two are OK. I add withdrawals from The Lifesafer, apply the correct categories, and add transactions (as transfers) from my bank account to it regurlary. All good and I know where my money goes.

In The Nightmare I started out with a negative balance (when I added the account) which I pay off every month, as much as I can. I would want these payments to be reflected in expenses as they are all related to the same category (auto maintenance!), and the way I see it they are real expenses.

The only solution I see to this is to start out with a zero balance in The Nightmare, and add a withdrawal that equals the total negative amount, with the correct category. However, this would not reflect my monthly spendings.

I have read through the two threads mentioned in the last post, but it did not give me closure. I should mention I am not very well versed in the world of economics.

Thanks in advance for all help, and thanks for an amazing piece of software.
Cedders
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Re: Credit Card Payments and Budgets

Post by Cedders »

Hi Magnulu,

I also met the same issue in other circonstances.

First of all, in a perfect world, I imagine it should flow this way :
  • You spend money using your credit card
  • You receive your monthly bill to pay the expense charged on your credit card
  • You transfer the amount of the bill from your checking account to your credit card account. Because it's a transfer, you do not see it in your expenses
  • From your credit card account, you see the transfer equal to the bill amount as a deposit
  • From your credit card account, you withdraw each expense and bound it to a category. Because it's now withdrawal, you can see those expenses in the reports
So far so good I suppose ? !

Now what to do when you transfer amount from an account to an other but you want it to be considered as an expenses or deposit in the reports ? Well my understanding so far is that you can't do it because the entries of type "transfer" are not included in report.

My workaround so far is that you have to do a kind of "manual transfer". Which means you have to do a withdraw on your checking accounts to reflect the expenses. This is also what I am doing personaly.

In my use case, I manage bookkeeping related to accounts of my girlfriend, accounts of me and our joint accounts. I transfer every month amounts on the joint account which does not appear as an expense because it is a transfer. But sometimes, I bought something personally through the joint account so to refund it and let it appear as an expense on my side, I have to do 2 entries (withdraw on my account and deposit on our joint account) so it appears in my reports.

Obviously this is not convenient and hope someone have a better workaround than me :) I imagine it would be nice to add on categories an information to type the kind of transaction (deposit, withdraw or transfer) to be able to deal with such issue.
magnulu
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Re: Credit Card Payments and Budgets

Post by magnulu »

Thanks, yes this is a solution. However, this will make the transaction be included in income as well, wouldn't it?

There are no perfect systems, but MMEX is sure close :)
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