withdrawals/deposits

[Ian Lewis]

Jim,

When starting a new set of books the starting balances are generally
made against an Equity account. You could create an Equity account
called 'Starting Balance' and make a starting balance transaction for
for each account (i.e. Checking, Savings etc.).

Ian

2008/7/29 Jim Douglas <jdz99 at hotmail.com>:
>
>> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:24:38 -0400
>> From: stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com
>> To: jdz99 at hotmail.com
>> CC: gnucash-user at lists.gnucash.org
>> Subject: Re: withdrawals/deposits
>>
>>
>> >What is the best way to initialize GUNCash for 2008.
>> >
>> >Should I just take 2007 ending balance and enter it as a deposit on 1/1/08 as my beginning balance? (am I missing something?)
>> >
>> >Check amounts are added as 'Withdrawals',  is this correct or is there another way to enter checks them?
>> >
>> >
>> >Thanks,
>> >Jim
>> >
>> >
>> Jim, I'd suggest you first go through the rather basic introduction to
>> accounting provided along with GnuCash but that will perhaps be
>> insufficient if you are totally new to "double entry bookkeeping". The
>> particular topic you are asking about is called "opening the books"
>> (start accounting period) and there is a corresponding "close the books"
>> (end accounting period). The FIRST time you open a set of books you will
>> need to create the opening balances for the "standing" (permanent)
>> accounts, accounts of fundamental types "asset", "liability", and "equity.
>>
>> I would open a new set of books with two split transactions, one for all
>> the asset accounts (the other side is equity) and one for all the
>> liability accounts (again the other side is equity). Traditional pen and
>> ink on paper bookkeeping would use a single transaction because they
>> could split both sides of a transaction (you can't easily do that in
>> GnuCash; or any other modern accounting package I have seen).
>>
>> No, the opening transaction isn't a "deposit" (not the right
>> description). The right description for the opening transactions would
>> be something like "open books"
>>
>> Michael
>>
>> --
>> There is no possibility of social justice on a dead planet except the equality of the grave.
>>
>
> I opened a new set of books.
> Assets is 'Read Only'
> Current Asset is 'Read Only'
> I set up my Checking Account and can enter "Withdrawals" or "Deposits"
>
> Is there a way to enter the opening balance or do I need to add a new account(the same checking account) again to enter the opening balance?
>
> Thanks,
> Jim
>
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