Here's what I do.

I enter one transaction in the CC account for the amount to be charged. I
split this into entries as required for the items I'm buying and taxes and
so forth just as I would if the GC were not involved. This adds up to more
than the total transaction amount. And then I add a split entry for Other
Income : Gifts Received for the amount of the GC that was used as an income
(negative in a positive purchase transaction) amount with whatever notes in
the memo for that split will tell me where the GC came from or whatever I
want. This reduces the sum of the splits back to the balance to be charged.

That way the expense show up as such and the income of the GC also shows up
as such and the total amount of the transaction ends up correct.

Make sense?

"jim.s.witherspoon" <jim.s.witherspoon[at]gmail.com> wrote in message
news:12oeebsoz5gb3$.19llxz0udyqdo$.dlg[at]40tude.net...
- quote -

On Fri, 26 Dec 2008 13:38:29 -0600, jim.s.witherspoon wrote:

- quote -

Well, I think maybe I've thought up the better solution. Set up a "Fry's"
account - enter the purchases as debits to the account. Then pay the
account by transfers from my Gift Card account and the Credit Card account.
Right?

I go to Fry's and buy this stuff:

Hard drive: $105
Flashlight: $6
Batteries: $10
Powerline Adapter: $25
Powerline Adapter: $25
Router: $40
Wireless Adapter: $20
After adding tax, the total purchase is $250.

This is how I pay for it:

Gift Card: $125
Credit Card: $125

How do I enter this transaction into MS Money?

I enter the above items in my Gift Card account ($125 balance), showing the
purchase prices and categorizing the items appropriately between
Computer/Hardware and Electronics. Then of course the $250 total amount
doesn't match the amount I'm paying from the Gift Card account ($125). As
far as I can tell, Money doesn't give me the option to allocate the balance
of the purchase price to my Credit Card account. I was hoping I'd get that
option when the "sum of the splits doesn't match the total amount" message.

So this is what I've done as a workaround. Allocate the hard drive,
flashlight, and part of the batteries to the Gift Card account, and the
remaining purchases to the Credit Card account. It's clumsy and doesn't
really reflect the transaction accurately - is there a better way?

Thanks for any help.