Entry of a "split" transaction

[Dave Peticolas]

"Robert Macaulay" writes:
> Hi. I was testing out gnucash. I have a problem figuring out how to enter a
> split.
>     I have created accounts for all the taxes, 401k, Stock purchase,
> medical, etc. How/where do I actually enter my paycheck. In quicken, I enter
> the actual check amount in the deposit field, and enter as splits my actual
> income, taxes etc to make the total of the splits equal to the actual check.
> How do I do this in a double entry system? I have gnucash setup as I believe
> auto-single so it expands for splits. From what I read, I enter my check
> from income acct to checking. Do I make the "split" happen from checking to
> the others? Can someone give me an idea of how to go about creating this
> transaction, ie, what transactions to enter in what windows to make the
> proper entries in all the accounts associated with a paycheck? I would love
> to use the income account and split from there, yet I have a hard time
> entering this. It seems the top line ignores what you type in, and
> recalculates. Thanks

The easiest place to enter your paycheck is in the checking account
you are depositing it into. In auto-single mode, type in a description,
enter the income account you want to use, and enter the depost amount
then press enter.

You are now on the 'Income' line of the transaction. Enter the gross
income there and 'tab' into the blank split. There you can enter the
next part, for example your federal income tax. You can continue
entering the parts in this way and GnuCash will recompute the total.
When you are done, hit 'Record'.

dave