Newbie Question: How to do Equivalent of a Quicken Split Transaction?

[Terry Boon]

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On Sat, Mar 24, 2001 at 04:52:52PM -0500, Jean-David Beyer wrote:
> When I get a pension check (Income), it seems I must enter three
> transactions:
> 
> 1.) Part goes to Expenses->Taxes->Federal->Withholding
> 2.) Part goes to Expenses->Taxes->State->Withholding
> 3.) The rest goes to Assets->Cash->Checking
> 
> I have just started using GnuCash 1.4.10 and I started mostly with
> 2001-01-01 for my accounts. However, for each pension EFT transaction,
> it seems I must enter the three separate transactions above. Is this
> true, or am I missing something?

It is possible to enter a "split" transaction in Gnucash, so that a
single transaction affects more than two accounts.  This seems to be
what you are after.  (A split transaction is what I use to split my
salary into income tax expense, national insurance contribution
expense, and cash asset.)

In order to be able to enter split transactions, you need to go to the
Register->Style menu in the register window.  Then select
"Multi-line", and lines will appear for you to enter as many lines as
you want in each transaction.

The layout is a little counterintuitive (well, it was to me after
going through my accountancy exams).  The Gnucash layout will look
like this in the Pension income account register window, where the
sums in the last three lines will add up to the figure in the top
line:

                          Debit   Credit
Pension (income)                       X
Federal tax (expense)                  X
State tax (expense)                    X
Checking account (asset)               X

If I recall correctly, it is planned to change this in a future
version to the more logical

                          Debit   Credit
Pension (income)                       X
Federal tax (expense)         X
State tax (expense)           X
Checking account (asset)      X

since the transaction *is* debiting the expense and asset accounts.

- -- 
Terry Boon, Hertfordshire, UK
terry@counterfactual.org 

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