Glad I could help. Thanks for the feedback.

"atlanta678" <atlanta678[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
newsC3ACDBC-7E8D-427C-AA66-B15F9AA681EF[at]microsoft.com...
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Dick,

Thanks for posting this suggestion. I was searching the threads for
just such a solution.

"Dick Watson" wrote:

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"Dick Watson" <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote in
message news:%23aKdTayvIHA.4492[at]TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
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If you don't skip setting up the asset account, then the Asset Value (on the
day of the sale) is the value of the car that you agreed to pay for it.
Then remember to immediately, on the same date, take a depreciation expense
that is appropriate. This is the expense you will incur. As some would say
"... a new car loses x% of value the moment you drive it off the lot...".

Then at regular intervals of your choice look uo the trade in value of the
car and make an expense entry in your asset account for Auto: Depreciation
to show the declining value of your automobile.

In rare cases, such as if you happen to buy a rare car, and keep it long
enough; or you buy for example an economy car that in the face of rising
gasoline prices has a higher trade in value then you would make the entry as
a credit.

It's a little more work but this will show the effect of buying the car on
your net worth.

Likewise if you buy a used car there is an agreed purchase price and most
likely of you got a good deal you won't incur the large depreciation expense
when you pick up your vehicle.

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If you go this route (no asset account) when the car is paid off you can
then create an asset account and value the car at the current book value.
In some states this might be useful for determining your personal property
taxes or licensing fees for certain vehicles.


Mark

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Here's one approach via example.

Say you purchase the car for $20,000 with an $15,000 loan and an additional
$1,500 in taxes, $200 in fees, and a $2,000 trade-in and $4,700 cash down.

Split a $4,700 transaction, in the account you write the check for the down
payment out of, into parts more or less like this:

$20,000 Automobile : Payment, memo: buy the '08 MasterCar Blaster
($2,000) Automobile : Payment, memo: trade-in the '97 MegaMotors Beater
$1,500 Taxes : Sales
($15,000) Other Income : Loan Proceeds Received, memo: this is from the Loan
Account "08 Blaster Auto Loan" but Money doesn't provide an easy way to
transfer those proceeds into this transaction
$200 Miscellaneous : Service Charges & Fees

Then you setup the loan account. I'd skip letting it create an Asset
Account, but there is no One Right Answer.

So, the net Automobile : Payment is all in this one transaction. When you
payoff the loan, you transfer principal. This reduces liability but reduces
cash as well. Net worth change: $0. The loan payments also include the
interest expense portion.

"drokkon" <drokkon[at]live.com> wrote in message
news:B0C7DD39-3D27-4903-8A50-81D6607F5B10[at]microsoft.com...
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Thanks guys.

So taking a simple car purchase, you wouldn't recommend an asset account.
Fine by me (my net worth is disastrous anyway), but then should I only deal
with the loan account and transferring funds to it from my checking (eg -
monthly payments)? What exactly do you mean by "expense the car when you buy
it?"

"Scott Tyler" <agent_scotty-at-hotmail-dot-com> wrote in message
news:A556E22B-7F9F-462C-B57F-BE11EA55BE97[at]microsoft.com...
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Whatever works for you is fine. Many of us do not even track the cars as
assets since they depreciate more or less to zero. Seems like more trouble
than it's worth. YMMV. Oh, and if you have a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL
"Gullwing" by all means have an asset account for it.

This is one of many where there is no One Right Answer.

"drokkon" <drokkon[at]live.com> wrote in message
news:%23PiS4YovIHA.3792[at]TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
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I deal with my car's asset account by checking the value every 3-12 months,
dividing the depreciation by the number of months, and enter smaller monthly
amounts.

As this restates my net worth for the prior 2-11 months, it probably
violates accounting principles, but as I don't own a business or submit
monthly reports to an accountant or anything like that, I don't worry too
much about that.

Other users don't even bother with asset accounts for cars: They just
expense the car when they buy it, as this saves the effort of 10 years of
depreciation entries that wipe out most of the original value.

--
Scott Tyler
agent_scotty-at-hotmail-dot-com

"drokkon" <drokkon[at]live.com> wrote in message
news:%23PiS4YovIHA.3792[at]TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
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I totally understand that, and I realize it's not a mistake... I'm just
wondering if there's some other way I'm supposed to manage asset accounts...

"Dick Watson" <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote in
message news:uJ789FmvIHA.2292[at]TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
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You lost $4k of net worth. The transaction that did it was entered this
month. That's about all Money knows. What else can it say?

"drokkon" <drokkon[at]live.com> wrote in message
news:2A11B522-A1CE-4D50-9438-36595ABABEF8[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

My newest question is how to deal with asset accounts. I added my car, and
added the initial value (price tag). This month, I went to adjust the value
by looking up my vehicle in the Blue Book. Once I entered the newest value,
my car devaluing by $4k shows up in ALL of my spending charts. Obviously
this wasn't an "expenditure," and it happened gradually since I bought the
car - not all this month!