Split journal entries

All transactions can be represented by using only elementary journal entries as described above. However, in some situations, it can be convenient to consider more than two account entries as forming a single journal entry. For example, when buying several different items in a single transaction, the receipt typically lists a total price to be booked as a whole as a credit amount to a cash or credit card account and multiple prices of individual items to be booked as debit amounts to various different expense accounts. Another example of a transaction naturally involving more than two accounts is a sale including tax, touching a bank or cash account, a revenue account, and a tax account. Many more examples of various kinds exist.

In the pta(1) journal, split journal entries are represented in a special multi-line format, using one line for each account involved. The first line lists the total amount in question and contains the number 0 instead of either the debit or the credit account number, whichever side of the entry needs to be split. Each of the following lines contains only three fields: the contra account number to be used instead of the 0 in the initial line, the partial amount going to that contra account, and a text string. The sum of the partial amounts is expected to exactly match the total amount in the initial line, or parsing will fail. By inserting a sufficient number of space characters, it is recommended to align the contra account numbers with the 0 above and the amounts with the other amounts in the file. This is not required and does not influence parsing of the journal, but it keeps the file more readable.

Each line of a split journal entry creates one account entry for the account mentioned in the line. In the account entry generated from the initial line, the contra account is set to 0 and the list of contra accounts is instead appended to the text string, avoiding duplicates. This account entry does not contain information about the partial amounts nor about the text strings given on the subsequent lines.

In the account entries generated from the subsequent lines, the date, booking identifier, and contra account are set as specified on the initial line. The text string is the concatenation of the text string on the initial line and the text string on the line in question. This account entry does not contain information about the total amount nor about the partial amounts and text strings on the other subsequent lines.

When booking a purchase or sale of multiple items, the text string in the initial line typically contains the name of the business partner, whereas the subsequent lines contain descriptions of the items traded. When deciding what to put into the text strings of split journal entries for other purposes, keep in mind that the text string given on the first line is copied to all generated account entries, while each of text strings given on subsequent lines only appears in one account entry.

Currently, splitting both sides of a journal entry is not supported, but a similar effect can be achieved by including one or more lines with negative amounts between the initial line and the subsequent lines.

Current prices

In bookkeeping, the book value of an asset usually is the cost price, i.e. the price that was paid when the asset was acquired, even if that happened many years ago. If the market price of the asset rises, even if the profit is not yet realized by selling the asset, one might feel tempted to book the unrealized profit, increasing the book value of the asset to match the current market price. However, in many countries, this is not even permitted, and even where it is permitted, it may not be desirable because booked profits are usually subject to tax, whereas unrealized profits are often fully or partially exempt from tax until they are finally realized.

Consequently, in order to track the performance of financial investments, a method is required that does not change the content of the balance sheet. In pta(1), the required supplementary information can be provided using price lines in the journal file, even though the craft of bookkeeping in general does not expect such lines in a journal. Right before each opening journal entry, each purchase, each selling, and before the end of the journal file, provide a price line for the respective asset. To track the performance up to arbitrary additional points in time, additional price lines can optionally be added anywhere in the file.

The format of price lines is similar to the format of entry lines, with two exceptions:

1. Instead of the credit account number, provide the number of units owned before and after that point in time, joined together with a hash character (‘#’).
2. Instead of the amount, provide the current market price for one unit.

The only purpose price lines are used for is calculating unrealized profits by pta(1) -p.