I’m guessing this has been asked and answered, but I didn’t have any luck finding a clear answer.
I am a new user just getting started and started down one path but then decided I might be doing it the wrong way. If I want to track both my personal and business expenses is it better to use one file and just diligent in setting up my categories for personal and business or is doing two separate files better for some reason. Especially since I have a CC that I sometimes use for business and sometimes for personal.
The best path will undoubtedly depend on your particular situation. In mine, I want to have some income and expenses show up in each budget, but differently. So I use two spreadsheets, one for business and one for personal. That gives me maximum flexibility in how I document both personal and business. And it avoids the extreme diligence required to make sure every transaction is parsed into the best place (personal or business). It works well for me, but again, your circumstances may be different.
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I’d lean towards @tom.goodell 's method, I think it’s easiest on my brain! but again there might be some unique things you need from your tracking which works best in a single sheet. I think experiment see how it goes, first with one sheet, I think you will quickly realize what doesn’t work
Ideally you would have two separate sheets, but that’s only realistic to maintain if you maintain a clear separation between your business and personal accounts. So ideally what I would recommend is that you delineate a clear business credit card that you don’t use for personal expenses, and vice versa. That will ensure your data flow is clear, and then you can set up a separate sheet for business and personal with separate categories. If the transactions remain intermingled in one credit card, then I would combine business and personal in one sheet, and use the groups and categories to delineate business vs. personal, because it will be too much effort to maintain separate sheets with commingled data. You could have a business group, and then business categories within that group.
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@brirscott Did any of the suggestions here help in your case?
I have not had the opportunity to try either approach. I have an issue with one of my bank accounts not showing up in the list of account to include. I have been working with support to hopefully fix it, but no luck yet. My current plan is to use one sheet and use groups and categories which I think will work very well for my situation.
alright sounds good! Thanks for sharing the update.