`Balance' dialog box.. what is it for.

[Josh Sled]

On Wed, 2004-08-04 at 23:57, Harry Putnam wrote:

> Derek Atkins <warlord at MIT.EDU> writes:
> 
> > As I mentioned in my last message, the problem is that you
> > did not provide a transfer account.  The money is withdrawaled
> > from your checking account and goes... where?
> >
> > - Into your pocket?  (assets:cash)
> > - To your checking account?  (liabilities:ccard)
> > - To pay for groceries?  (expenses:groceries)
> 
> OK, I'm now seeing what the double entry stuff is like.  I don't care
> where it goes.  Don't want to keep track of that.  I just want to keep
> track of what is in the bank.  Just like they do.  They don't care
> where it goes yet are quite capable of displaying my balance.

Why are you tracking the transactions if you don't care where it goes?

If you just want to keep the balance, all you need is a piece of paper.

And once you do start caring, you really want double-entry to make sense
of it all.


But if you _really_ don't care, then -- sure -- just have everything go
into an 'unbalanced' account; GnuCash will function fine.


> I read somewhere gnucash would be usefull for all levels of users.

It increasingly sounds like GnuCash isn't the program you want, though
I'd recommend you stick with it for a while and see if you like it in
the end.   There are multiple UI affordances to ease some of the
common-use-case data-entry conditions, such as:
  * auto-completion of account names on entry.
  * "in-line" creation of new accounts.
  * import transaction-matching.

All that is to say that you're in the hardest part of the curve, where
you're creating a framework in which to exist that has all your specific
data [accounts, names, mappings, &c.]  Subsequent usage becomes much
easier.

...jsled

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