Help with setting up for the first time

Maf. King maf at chilwell.net
Fri Sep 7 10:15:06 EDT 2007


On Friday 07 Sep 2007, Ryan G. Tumbagahan wrote:
> Hi all, I'd like to ask for help in creating opening balances for my
> accounts. I may have been confused by the volume of help in the
> documentation.
>
> When I create an asset account and set its opening balance, do I create
> the transaction in the asset and put "equity:opening balances" in the
> Transfer column, or do I start with the Equity:Opening Balances account
> and transfer to the asset account?
>
> I may have made a mistake doing the first approach mentioned above
> because now my asset accounts have positive values and so does the
> equity account. Can anyone help please?


Hi Ryan,

No, I think that you have done it correctly.  Assets are usually positive, and  
bear in mind the accounting equation which states that 
equity=assets - liabilities

Although possibly counter-intuitive, both assets and equity can easily be 
positive numbers...

HTH,
Maf.
 


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