[moneydance] question on car purchase...

[Katahdin]

> Hi,

> >
> > I  recently purchased a car using a loan and a down payment. I set up
> > my loan account and put the money from the loan into "auto expense".
> > My down payment also went to my "auto expense". But now, I have a big
> > expense (auto purchase) in MD reports but don't have any place to
> > show the value of the car. Should I set an asset account? Should I
> > enter a transaction from the expense account to this asset? How would
> > you record it?
>
> I would have set up an asset account for the car.  The downpayment and
> the proceeds of the loan would have gone into the asset account (instead
> of an expense).
>
> --
>  Robert Kesterson
>  robertk at robertk.com
>
>
Should I
> enter a transaction from the expense account to this asset? How would
> you record it?
I would NOT initiate a transaction, especially  a none cash(bank) trans FROM
an expense acct, even tho it would give the same result.

To incur an expense, the depreciation amount would be a credit (minus) to
the Asset account (Car) and a debit (plus) to your expense category.   For
people who track this,  estimating the value of car at the end of the year
seems to be reasonable, and using the difference in the above transaction.
Something like this in the asset/car acct:
12/31/20xx,Depreciation expense - car,Auto expense,(payment)=depreciation..

Respond please if I'm missing anything..