Last night's fundraiser went well. It was well attended and your base brought out some new faces you hadn't seen before. The band gave up the door to the campaign. You record that as a Common Pot contribution as permitted by your local campaign disclosure laws. You collected a dozen checks during the fundraising pitch. Those have been recorded according to the instructions above.

But how do you account for the $137.12 in groceries your boss' husband spent on catering the afternoon reception for the media?

An in-kind contribution has a dollar value. It is represented by a material gift that benefits the campaign. But no cash was collected by the campaign, nor disbursed by the treasurer. There is no petty cash expense to account for. So what do you do?

Its simple, just record it twice, both as a contribution from your Contributor, (your boss' husband) and then as a payment to a vendor (your boss' husband). Both times make sure you post the transaction against the In-kind contribution account.

Your books will balance, and pulling a report with the Reports -> Trial Balance option in the menu will permit you to drill down and see the details for all transactions in the In-Kind account or any other account you might care to look at.