cash: avoid "double count"

Mike or Penny Novack stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com
Tue Feb 10 10:35:26 EST 2009


>
>Hm, I think I have seen the petty cash account in a version of gnucash
>prior to 2.0 (but then I did not use gnucash really). In the 2.2.4
>version, I am using now, I can't find this account so I am not sure how
>to proceed.
>
>
>Uwe 
>
>  
>
That would be a symptom of a much more fundamental problem 
(unfamiliarity) with GnuCash.

There is NOTHING sacred about the built in accounts (typical accounts) 
that GnuCash supplies. You can create whatever accounts you find useful 
to YOUR needs. Just use the appropriate "type" of account and place your 
new accounts in the proper place in the chart (under the correct 
"parent"). The built ins are just to get you started and especially 
helpful for those entirely new to bookkeeping. But they can't cover 
everything.

For example, consider a "line of credit" account. I haven't checked the 
newest versions (I tend not to upgrade software as long as "works" but 
that's the habit of one whose career was in a shop that carefully stayed 
away from "the bleeding edge"). But I am going to assume that GnuCash 
does not have a built in for that type of account. However -- that's 
very much like a "credit card" account in how a "line of credit" works 
in practice so that would be the "type" I would use for one (even though 
in other ways the account might resemble a checking account*).


Michael

* Instead of a credit card, usually a "check book" and you write checks. 
But it's not an asset account. It's a liability account. The balance is 
always zero or less.




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