withdrawals/deposits

Mike or Penny Novack stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com
Mon Jul 28 21:24:38 EDT 2008


>What is the best way to initialize GUNCash for 2008.
>
>Should I just take 2007 ending balance and enter it as a deposit on 1/1/08 as my beginning balance? (am I missing something?)
>
>Check amounts are added as 'Withdrawals',  is this correct or is there another way to enter checks them? 
>
>
>Thanks,
>Jim
>  
>
Jim, I'd suggest you first go through the rather basic introduction to 
accounting provided along with GnuCash but that will perhaps be 
insufficient if you are totally new to "double entry bookkeeping". The 
particular topic you are asking about is called "opening the books" 
(start accounting period) and there is a corresponding "close the books" 
(end accounting period). The FIRST time you open a set of books you will 
need to create the opening balances for the "standing" (permanent) 
accounts, accounts of fundamental types "asset", "liability", and "equity.

I would open a new set of books with two split transactions, one for all 
the asset accounts (the other side is equity) and one for all the 
liability accounts (again the other side is equity). Traditional pen and 
ink on paper bookkeeping would use a single transaction because they 
could split both sides of a transaction (you can't easily do that in 
GnuCash; or any other modern accounting package I have seen).

No, the opening transaction isn't a "deposit" (not the right 
description). The right description for the opening transactions would 
be something like "open books"

Michael

-- 
There is no possibility of social justice on a dead planet except the equality of the grave.



More information about the gnucash-user mailing list