I need help

John R. Carter, Sr. john at jrcarter.com
Fri Apr 9 21:59:20 EDT 2010


On Apr 9, 2010, at 9:00 AM, gnucash-user-request at gnucash.org wrote:

> PS -- I have not yet had a reason to try a transaction split on both sides, don't even know if possible using this software.


The key thing to keep in mind is this:

	This is a double-entry accounting system.
	Everything that is credited for in one register must have an equal amount debited in one or more other registers.

If you split one transaction into two or more accounts, and then if you go to one of those other accounts and split that one (which can be done), you have effectively wasted your time going to the other account to split that transaction because it could have been done in the first transaction. The second split is nothing more than a trivial additional split in the first transaction. I do triple splits quite often. When I go to the store and buy something for the kitchen, something for the pantry, and something for the DVD player, there are three expenses: household, groceries, entertainment. And only one payment.

	Credit Expenses->Entertainment
	Credit Expenses->Groceries
	Credit Expenses->Household
		Debit Assets->Current->Checking

That's a three-way split. The sum of the Credits must equal the Debit.
If you try to complicate the matter by trying to do an additional split in one of the Credit registers you will only be wasting your time. If the transactions all happened on the same day with the same payment (whether it be an expense or an income), do it all here in this one transaction.

Effectively, you can split a payment into as many accounts as there are pennies in the amount.
--
John Carter



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