Catagories or accounts

[Doug Laidlaw]

Sorry you got my complete list of random signatures.  I didn't notice until 
the message had gone.  You got the complete text of the script.  Anyone who 
thinks it is a good idea, can just copy it and email me privately for setup 
instructions.

Doug.

On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 10:56 pm, Doug Laidlaw wrote:
> Quicken has a lot of lists that can be called up and edited.  For example,
> transactions are "memorized" so that they can be used again for quick
> entry. This list eventually gets a mess and needs to be cleaned up.  For
> this purpose, the list can be displayed and edited.
>
> There is a list of accounts, and a list of categories.  As you have
> explained, the list of accounts in Quicken includes only assets and
> liabilities (and provisions) -  the categories are really income and
> expense accounts, so in Gnucash, they form part of the list of accounts. 
> For example, in Quicken I had a category for Groceries.  In Gnucash, that
> is an expense account.  I had a bit of accounting training, but I can fully
> understand that anybody with none, will face a bit of a hurdle in
> understanding the differences.  For the person with only a checkbook, it
> seems a bit of "overkill", but for an accountant, or a businessman who has
> one, it is the correct way of doing things.
>
> HTH,
>
> Doug.
>
> On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 08:51 am, Derek Atkins wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Phil Scherzinger <pscherz at earthlink.net> writes:
> > > Need some help and an explanation.  I come from a Quicken
> > > background, so patience please.  I am looking through the list of
> > > catagories, and find I would like to either edit, delete or add to
> > > them.  Can I? if so, how.
> >
> > First, a bit of terminology.  There are no "categories" in GnuCash.
> > Gnucash ONLY has accounts.  What quicken labels categories are just
> > "income" and "expense" accounts in gnucash.
> >
> > Having said that...  Which "list of categories" do you mean?  Do you
> > mean the list in the New Hierarchy Druid (the one you get when you
> > run File -> New File or when you first started?).
> >
> > The short answer is "yes", you can edit the account list, but only
> > after you've created your actual data file.  Once you've created your
> > Chart of Accounts you can add/edit/delete to your heart's content.
> >
> > > Also, and this borders on an accounting question, when do I want to
> > > use an account vs a catagory?
> >
> > See above explanation about gnucash accounts....
> >
> > -derek

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