Paying Expenses

[Georg Wilckens]

On Tue, Jul, 17, 2001 at 16:52:01 -0400, Nathan Matias wrote:

Hi!

> I seem to be having a problem with the version of GNUCash in the
> Debian unstable dist(1.6.1). I went through the druid and set up
> stuff, but when I try to pay expenses from my cash account(under my
> assets), it either increases the expense and subtracts from the cash
> account(ie, now I owe more) or it pays off part of the expense and
> adds to the cash account(ie, the money I pay off is added to my cash
> account. ie, $400 in cash account paying off $350 of my expense
> makes my cash account have $750) Is this a bug in GNUcash or is it a
> problem with how I have things set up?

It's probably the secret of double-entry bookkeeping. ;)

IIRC this behavior is indeed expected. You should in this case not
view the transaction as "paying off expenses" but rather like "paying
something and recording how much it was in the expenses account". I
just checked and in gnucash a transaction is always credit on one
account and debit on the other. An easy way to avoid trouble is to
always do the transaction from your bank account. This way you don't
have to remember which side it will be listed on on the expense
account.

BTW... is this common business practice? I think I remember reading a
German accounting book where it said that a transaction involving
asset and liability should be on the same side for both
accounts... Anyway it doesn't really matter as long as you are
consistent. ;)

Regards,
	Georg
-- 
People often find it easier to be a result of the past than a cause of
the future.