Credit Balance on new Expense Account

[Tad Marko]

On Fri, Jan 12, 2007 at 12:21:35PM -0500, Derek Atkins wrote:
> Nah!  Just record it against Equity:Opening Balances
> 

OK, so then the account will have the correct 1/1/2007 balance, but
then how do I indicate debits against that balance in that one
account? Maybe my understanding of expense accounts is flawed:

What I think is that under normal circumstances, I get my phone bill
and I pay it out of my checking account. I put, say, a $35.00 debit in
the checking account to the telephone expense account. One entry in
two places, a negative in the checking account and a positive in the
telephone account. Am I done, or did I need to somehow put a negative
in the telephone account so its balance stays zero? Or does its
balance increase all year, reflecting the sum of my telelphone
expense?

Thanks,
Tad