Gift received - Imbalance

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

Quoting Chris Henderson <henders254 at gmail.com>:

> I have received $1,000 as a gift and put in under "Income:Gifts
> Received" but the Transfer column showed as "Imbalance" I have then
> transferred this amount to Assets:Cash Assets:My Bank Account.
>
> - does anyone know what it means by "Imbalance" and whether I'm doing
> this right?

The "Imbalance" means you didn't properly set a transfer account
for the double entry accounting.   Every transaction talks about the
flow of money, you need to specify where the money comes from, and
where it goes to.  So for example when you buy groceries it would be
a transaction from Assets:Cash to Expenses:Groceries.  Similarly
when you pay for a restaurant with a credit card the transaction is
Liabilities:Credit Card -> Expenses:Dining.   In YOUR case it would
be a transaction from Income:Gift -> Assets:Cash (or Assets:Checking,
depending on what you did with the $1000).

Most likely you didn't properly double-enter this, so GnuCash added
the imbalance for you.  Just assign that imbalance split to the correct
destination account.

> Thanks.

> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available