Just getting started...

[Terence J. Golightly]

Hello,

I am new to gnucash. I am using version 1.5.6 in Mandrake 8.2 kernel
2.4.18-6mdk on an i686 machine.  I used an account under assets checking
and entered some transactions. 

I tried entering an opening amt. for my balance using Income | Salary
and entered a  months transactions.  When I went to reconcile a window
popped up showing ending balance and no opening balance. I couldn't
reconcile.  I tried changing the account that my initial amt 

from: Income | Salary 

to: Equity | Opening Balance

Still no go. $0 opening balance. Can't reconcile. I tried starting over
as well but without success.

All I want is to keep my checkbook balanced every month. 


I confess to not being familiar with basic accounting terminology and am
not really interested in learning them. So when I noticed the "counter
intuitive" way my balances were displayed I was thrown a bit. I can
possibly get used to some of this if it can be kept to a minimum. I
looked at the online documentation and wasn't impressed with it. I'm
just starting out here. So please lend me your ear and perhaps some feed
back, maybe there is a more basic package for linux out there that I can
use.

Sincerely,

Terry Golightly
t.golightly@verizon.net