Usability questions

[Mike or Penny Novack]

At least part of the problem is lack of understanding what double entry 
bookkeeping looks like the old fashioned way (pen and ink on paper) and 
so not seeing how the computerized version can and can't shortcut the 
process (hide what's going on "under the hood").

Journal --- where the transactions were originally entered.

Ledger --- the accounts to which the transactions posted.

Essentially what GnuCash is doing for you is "autoposting" so you can 
just enter the transaction from any ledger account affected instead of 
first creating a journal entry. Where the transaction is simple (just 
one debit and one credit) you don't need to see the expanded journal 
entry. But where there is more than one (ledger) account being debited 
or more than one credited you do -- and that is what the "split" 
expanded view is doing for you. That's what a journal entry looks like 
(in old fashioned bookkeeping)

Michael

PS --- The "big deals" of a system like GnuCash are the autoposting 
(done by hand, 90+% of errors took place during the posting process, 
miscopying a digit, transposing digits, shifting digits, etc.) and the 
automated standard reports (that again involved and error prone copying 
of data when done the old fashioned way).