Beginner's question

[Beth Leonard]

On Sun, Jan 21, 2007 at 06:55:27PM -0800, FamiliaFrazelle wrote:
> i'm a first time user and do not use a checkbook, only credit cards.  My
> salary from work is deposited directly into my savings acct.
> 
> Is this entered as a Deposit or a Withdrawal?

Short answer:
It's a deposit to your savings account (occurs in the left column)
   AND
It's income to your "Income:Salary" account (occurs in the right column)

Long answer:

Gnucash uses what's called "Double Entry Bookkeeping"  This means
that money is never created or destroyed, it only changes accounts.

So, when your work deposits money into your bank account, two
gnucash accounts are affected.  You can name those two accounts
anything you like, but if you use the default names then it's
easier for others to understand your questions.

Getting the default names:
When you start Gnucash, you can go to File->New->New File
and it will give you a "New Account Hierarchy Setup" druid.
Choose your currency, and then select "Common Accounts"  That's
probably the easiest way to get started.  You could uncheck
"Common Accounts" and instead check "A Simple Checkbook" but
I think "Common Accounts" is much more useful than "A Simple Checkbook"

Recording your salary:
Assuming you have the common accounts defined, if you want to record
that your work has deposited your salary into your savings account,
Click on Assets:Current Assets:Savings Account.

This brings up the register tab for your savings account.  In the
Description field enter "Salary from Job A"

In the Transfer field click on "Income:Salary".  The shortcut for
this is after you are done typing "Salary from Job A" hit the tab
key, then type the letter 'i' followed by a ':' followed by 's'
then tab again.  This will put you in the deposit row.  Enter how
much money they gave you (assume $1000 for this example) and hit
return.

Now your bank account balance will show that it's gone up by the
amount of your Salary.

If you go back to the "Accounts" tab, and open up by double-clicking
the "Income:Salary" tab, you will also see that your Salary account
now has an entry that was automatically put there for $1000.  It's
properly in the "Income" column on the right.

 
> If i wish to set up an income account, such as MyJob, and from this
> transfer the money to the savings acct., above, when i deposit to MyJob,
> is this a Charge or Income?

As stated above, it will show up automatically as Income if you entered
it from your bank account's tab.  If you wish to enter it from the
"Income:Salary" tab instead, you'd put your income in the "income"
column, and choose the transfer account to be
"Assets:Current Assets:Savings Account" (a:c:s for short)

Once you've entred your salary once for one paycheck, if you use
the same description the next time, Gnucash will auto-prefill the
columns for you.

> i think that if i can get these two questions answered, i'll have enough
> to proceed.  My head aches from trying to understand this and this is
> such a great looking program that i'd really like to be able to use it.

It is very hard to understand at first, but Soooo useful once you get
the hang of it.  You can import credit card statements on the computer
into gnucash and it totals up where all your money is being spent, etc.

> Thanks for any help and have a great evening!  :)

If you need more help, just ask -- but if you reply to this message
don't forget to group-reply.  The default mail behavior is strange
and doesn't reply to the list automatically.

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