Cannot make sub-accounts balance

[Beth Leonard]

On Wed, Apr 20, 2005 at 10:35:26AM -0600, Blair Lowe wrote:
> In the accounts screen, the subgroup accounts do not equal the subgroup
> total on many accounts.

Hi,

We figured it out in #gnucash on IRC (thanks to OliveLove & Warlord).
You have two liability accounts (Mastercard and Visa) totalling
under the assets.  An accountant could explain it better than I,
but a negative total in a liability account is the exact opposite
of an asset.  So, when the assets are totaled including the negative
balances on the credit cards they add the opposite of how they
are listed in human readable form.  (A negative balance on the
credit card is like you paid ahead in advance, and can be thought
of as an asset.  It should add to your total assets, not subtract
from them.)  If you add the sub-accounts by hand treating the
credit card accounts in the opposite direction of how they are
listed, you will find that the total matches correctly.

Typically, liability accounts like credit cards are not children of
the "Assets" accounts tree.  To move them under the "Liability" account
tree, single click on the account in the main window, then click
on the Edit button (fourth from the left).  Under Parent Account,
select "Liabilities."

It looks like under your Assets account you have many types of
accounts, including expenses like payroll.  Typically things
like that are listed under the top-level "Expense" account.  This
will help with the pre-defined reports down the line.

--Beth 
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+                             Beth Leonard                          +
+       O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave              +
+       O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?        +
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