Equity:Opening Balances question

[Derek Atkins]

Accounting 101:  Equity == Assets + Liabilities

If you have an asset, that means you have a balancing equity.
This goes the same for opening balances, when you create an
account that has an opening balance, that money had to come from
SOMEWHERE -- and that somewhere is the equity account.

-derek

Max Gravitt <maxgravitt at earthlink.net> writes:

> Hi,
>
> I am a new user of GnuCash, and I have a question regarding create new
> accounts and the Equity:Opening Balances.  I created a few new
> Brokerage Accounts under Investments and put in the first transaction
> as the opening balance as a transfer from "Equity:Opening Balances".
> And of course, it shows up under the Equity:Opening Balances.
>
> I understand the basics of the Double Entry account system, but why is
> it useful to see all of my opening balances aggregated or even listed
> in one place or even listed at all?  I understand that if I were to
> create a new account after already using GnuCash, I would transfer
> from some account to the new one.  But setting it up the first time,
> it seems awkward to have the Opening Balances account, and I'm having
> trouble getting GnuCash to reflect the current state of all my
> accounts.
>
> Also, the toolbar that says Net Assets is reporting it as a value that
> I don't understand.  It is considerably less than the sum of just my
> investment accounts, not including checking.
>
> Can anyone shed some light these newbie issues?
>
> Overall, I am very impressed with the application and looking forward
> to learning how to use it effectively.
>
> thanks,
> Max
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>
>

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available