Bank Service Charge Account & Negative Balance

[Colin Law]

2009/8/26 T. Howell-Cintron <lists at kathera.com>:
>
> Greetings,
>
> I'm new to GC and accounting in general and have what is perhaps a very
> dumb question, but I've searched the list, wiki, and FAQ to no avail.
>
> My Bank Service Charge account has several transactions transferred from
> my checking account and I don't understand why the balance is the
> inverse of what I'd expect.  For example my first transaction is a
> rebate of 9.75 and brings my balance to (9.75).  Why would a rebate
> cause a negative balance?

The rebate increases your bank account by 9.75 (presumably), so
therefore it must decrease the service charge account by that amount
as every transaction must just move money from one place to another
(or via splits to several others).  The service charge account is not
a real account it is just a holder to receive service charges and to
provide rebates.

Colin L