help

Dale Alspach alspach@math.okstate.edu
Sat, 04 Jan 2003 17:32:26 -0600


While you cannot turn off double entry accounting you can make it
fairly painless to use.

For a checkbook setup make three toplevel accounts (type):

Checking account (bank)
Income (income)
Expenses (expense)

Put the default mode to be single line. Only open the checking
account and make all transactions from it. For any checks, ATM
withdrawals, bill pays, etc. use Expenses as the the other
account (typing the letter e should fill it in ). For deposits use
Income as the other account. If things are setup correctly, all
entries should go something like this:

On a fresh line enter or correct the supplied date <tab>
if any, enter check number (or + to increment)<tab>
enter payor or payee and/or a description<tab>
enter e or i<tab>
Either <tab> type amount or type amount <enter>

Now the cursor should be on a fresh line ready for the next
transaction. When the bank statement comes, select reconcile from
the account menu and proceed.

It is not necessary to have accounts for every possible kind of
expense or income.  As time goes on you may find it helpful to
add accounts to track things for filing your income tax or for
certain expenses. The purpose of double entry accounting is not
masochism (for most at least) but to gather useful information
and to help insure accuracy by providing a means for cross
checking.

(To the documentation writers)
I hope a description of this type of simple checkbook setup is in
the documentation somewhere. The question comes up every few
months on this list. One of the strengths of gnucash is its
flexibility. It can be used for something as simple as a
checkbook and as complicated as a small business. It is a good
idea to offer the accounting novice a simple way to implement
something he/she already understands. Then provide examples of
how to upgrade the chart of accounts to track more as needed.

Dale