Transfers (Neither Income Nor Expense)
I am trying to figure out how to handle a transfer of assets coming in from outside the scope of my ledger. The money is periodically transferred over from the UK, where another set of accounts handles the income and expenses in GDP. It is not income, nor is it an expense. It represents cash moving in from my separate UK record-keeping into US-tracked accounts, not newly earned income.
Thoughts, and wisdom are welcome.
I could try and merge the two ledgers together, but that seems like more trouble than I feel comfortable taking on.
TIA Frederick
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1 Posted by dwg on 06 Aug, 2026 12:52 AM
I think use a slightly different mindset is the easiest approach.
The Money coming in is an income to the set of accounts, it is "incoming", therefore I would tend to create a specific Income category to represent the monies coming from another set of books, i.e. it is a transfer and use that, give the category a suitable name and create it at the top level.
This category however you would exclude from most reports but for example you may want to see how much money came from the UK accounts so you could use this category in such a report.
I would not get too hung up on a strict Income/Expense distinction for this, it is really where it fits the best and is the least intrusive and requires the minimum amount of work to implement and maintain.
2 Posted by frederick on 06 Aug, 2026 01:13 AM
Wise words, DWG. I was overthinking this. I can create a root category of transfers recording incoming amounts from the UK.
Thanks
Frederick
frederick closed this discussion on 06 Aug, 2026 01:46 AM.