Debit/Credit friendly names not so friendly

[Ross Boylan]

I just gave gnucash a try, and thought I'd report on something I found
confusing (v 1.6.6): the initial "friendly" names for debit and
credit.  These appeared as "funds in" and "funds out."

For asset accounts this is fine, but for other types of accounts it is
confusing.

For liability accounts, if you get a liability, does that mean funds
are in or out?  Or, put differently, the name suggested to me that
although funds in = debit for assets, it might mean credits for
liabilities.

For income and expense accounts the labelling is totally
non-intuitive, as regular income gets labelled as funds out.  As
someone familiar with the debit/credit terminology, I wondered again
if the mapping had been switched (that is, funds in = debit for asset
but credit for income).

I set the preference option for "use accounting terms" and now it's
all clear--apparently "funds in" is just a relabelling of "debit."

Granted that debit and credit are unfamiliar to those without an
accounting background--to say that a debit increases your bank account
sounds backwards to most--I don't think the attempted fix really
works.

Those without accounting backgrounds are likely to find the meaning of
funds in and out unclear for non-asset accounts.  And I found that
familiarity with accounting didn't help, because the friendly names
suggested to me that "funds in" might mean debit for some accounts and
credit for others.

I guess if people operate in single line mode from their asset
accounts this won't come up (but what about credit cards?), but
otherwise it's confusing.

There are a couple of solutions I can think of:

1. stick just with debit and credit, and explain it briefly to people.
However, that really is not going to fly for most home users.

2. describe what "funds in" means in non-asset accounts for both
accountants and non-accountants.  (That is, just say, "For those of
you who know accounting, these are just friendly terms for debit and
credit" and then have a somewhat longer explanation for others).

3. Provide a mode in which there is only one column, and it is
interpreted so that positive numbers go to the "natural" place.
Asset: debit
Liability: credit
Expense: debit
Income: credit
with negative the reverse.
Again, credit cards are problematic.


On a separate note, I was a bit surprised that Income and Expense
accounts apparently don't go under the equity account, but must stand
on their own.

I should add that, apart from these problems, I found the program
quite nice.