Debit and Creadit in Assets

[Josh Sled]

On Fri, 2006-07-21 at 15:22 +0300, Christos Gentsis wrote:
> I use the Gnucash 2.0.0 and i found out that in the assets, the credit
> and debit fields are in the other way around. More specific, then in a
> income account you credit some money the total of the account should
> increase (this is what happens), in expenses account then you debit then
> the total should increase (and this happens), but in assets, then you
> credit an account the total should be increased... but it is decreased,
> and it is increased then you debit it... which it doesn't look normal,
> because if you transfer money to this account then the account should be
> credited and not debited... (i think)

The formal accounting use of the word "debit" can sometimes be
counterintuitive.

In particular, debits of Expense and Assets accounts will increase them.
Debits of Liability (credit-card) accounts will *decrease* them.
<http://www.answers.com/topic/debit#wpcontent>

However, GnuCash, by default, performs sign reversal for Credit Card
accounts, so that they appear -- as one would expect -- positive when
you have a balance due. 

There are two preferences of interest here, both in Edit > Preferences >
Accounts ... The `Reversed Balance Accounts` option I just mentioned,
and the `Use formal accounting labels` choice.

-- 
...jsled
http://asynchronous.org/ - `a=jsled; b=asynchronous.org; echo ${a}@${b}`
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