Paycheck Imbalance

[David Reiser]

On Apr 4, 2009, at 2:42 PM, Peter wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I just started using gnucash a couple weeks ago, so today was the  
> first
> time I tried entering a paycheck.  I followed the help tutorial on
> entering it as a split transaction, and everything looks like it
> balanced out (the amount in my checking account matches what gnucash
> says it should be.)  When I went back to the list of accounts,  
> though, I
> now have an imbalance account with a negative amount for the amount of
> the paycheck, and the same negative amount in the salary income  
> account.
> Is this the way it is supposed to work?  I thought the Income:Salary
> account was a special account with an infinite supply of money that  
> was
> only there so you have a source for double entry.  Why should I care  
> how
> much less money my employer has?
>
> Peter


It  isn't that you don't care about how much less your employer has,  
but you (via the IRS) do care how much income you have.

Is your income account of type "Income"?

Looking at my checking account register, my paychecks have the gross  
income amount in the right (Total Withdrawal) amount column and all  
the deductions and net pay are in the left (Total Deposit) column.

Dave
--
David Reiser
dbreiser at earthlink.net