Tracking Money in Savings Account

[Mike Leone]

On 12/15/2010 1:00 PM, Wayne Bird wrote:
> 
> Hello Daniel,
> 
> Ah, this seems to be a bit different then what Derek was saying. If
> I
understood Derek correctly (the big "if"), he has two accounts for the
same item; Asset:Bank:Movies and Liability:Expense:Movies. So
transactions would go something like this: Add paycheck to
Income:Paycheck; transfer Income:Paycheck to Asset:Bank:Movies. Purchase
movie, transfer Asset:Bank:Movies to Liability:Expense:Movies
> 
> If I understand what you're saying, there is only one account, Liability:Expense:Movies.  

There can NEVER be only one account in a transaction, in a double-entry
bookkeeping system like GNUCash.

Each transaction MUST have AT LEAST one Debit and AT LEAST one Credit entry.

When you receive your paycheck, you DEBIT the asset account
(Asset:Checking Account) - this increases the amount, as assets are
increased by debit entries. You then CREDIT the income account
(Income:Paycheck) - this increase the amount, as income are increased by
credit entries.

You can break it into more detail, if you want, but that's the minimum
that MUST happen. One debit, one credit.

Going to the movies is a debit to Expenses:Movies (or whatever expense
account you choose), as expenses (like assets) are debits, and so are
increased by debit entries. And the money would come from your cash or
checking account, so you credit those (since assets are increased by
debit entries, they must be decreased by credit entries).

Again, one debit, one credit.

That help any?