Budgeting question

[melodys]

I use Quicken to keep track of my accounts.

I am having trouble with one aspect of my budget. My daughter is in college and has a trust (courtesy of late grandparents) that covers her expenses. In addition some of my son's expenses, such as an expensive band trip, are covered by his portion of the trust. I pay these expenses either out of pocket or by credit card I am reimbused by the trustee.

I am not quite sure how to account for these in my budget. It can be a significant amount of money floating around and sometimes it is several weeks between when I pay the bill and when I am reimbursed.

Any wisdom on how best to keep track of this would be appreciated.

[prudent lass]

Do you mean how best to keep track of this in Quicken? Or are you wondering if you should have something like a sinking account for these expenses?

[melodys]

My question is how to keep track of this in Quicken or some other budgeting method?

[prudent lass]

Hmmm...it's possible to track expenses out of your operating budget by inserting extra expense lines, but depending on the reimbursement schedule you'd have to be comfortable with alternately looking like you're in the red or awash in cash. That would drive me nuts.

Because these are special expenses, my preference would be to track them separately from my monthly operating budget. I'd set aside the necessary cash needed for the semester (or whatever timeframe) and then create a spreadsheet detailing what was paid for, the amount of money paid, and the amount of money eventually reimbursed. A quick glance at the reimbursement column would tell me what was still owing. I'd also track the amount of the float still in the account. I'd only alter my personal budget if I saw the float balance getting too low and needed to create a recurring payment in order to beef it up. Once I knew that an expense was no longer going to recur (e.g., the band trip's done), I'd lower the float and reabsorb the cash back into my personal budget.

I'm not sure if this is what you were looking for, but IHTH.

[Greebo]

You could create a new account as a Cash Account and track expenses and reimbursements there. You'll have to do double entry - once in your general account register to keep the cash balance up to date, once in the cash account for the trust to keep track of what you're owed.

[gmarie]

I use a simple (free) version of Quicken offered through my credit union. I have an account called "Reimbursed Expenses" that I use for any items that pass through my accounts that are not "mine" and do not need to track as part of my own budget, such as reimbursed business expense - or a quick "loan" to someone.