disposing of splits

[Michael T. Garrison Stuber]

> I know the folks on this list with any sense of accounting will shrink
> back in horror, but all I really need is an electronic
> checkbook. Gnucash is the obvious practical choice for it. Michael
> seems to imply that is not just bad bookkeeping, but physically
> impossible. But can't I simply delete this "Imbalance" expense account
> that snuck up on me? If I do so, will it also delete my checking
> account at the same time? It seems to have the same transactions as my
> checking account (but for some reason ends up with a somewhat
> different balance). The idea of having to enter everything twice
> may be logical and necessary for double entry bookeeping, but from my
> perspective it is counterproductive.

I don't know about "horror."  I think a lot of us have friends and 
relatives that don't even bother balancing their checkbooks.

In any event, if you delete "Imbalance" all of your transactions will 
become unbalanced and the balance in your checking account will get messed 
up. (It doesn't matter what they're named, but you have to have at least 
two accounts to have a transaction.)  As a point of clarification, you 
don't have to enter everything (the entire transaction) twice, you just 
have to enter the amount twice.  You type in the date, description, etc, 
then the amount, then go to the next line and enter the amount again. 
There may be a snazzy way that GNUCash will auto fillin things for you, but 
I don't use it that way, so I couldn't tell you.  Somebody else on the list 
may be able to comment.