Help request to start using GNUcash effectively

[Maf. King]

On Sunday 03 January 2010 04:45:07 Deepa Vivek wrote:

<SNIP>

Hi,
Welcome to the list and hope that GC works for you!

> 1.       Is the process I have followed to get started (above) correct?

Seems generally reasonable.

> 2.       As my bank and credit card accounts were imported into GNUCash
> after exporting the online data to a .qif file, should I not assign opening
> balances for them? If so, how is this done?
>

Create a transaction for each of the credit card / bank accounts etc. (I'd 
suggest that you use 31 dec as the date) which transfer to an account called 
Equity:Opening Balances (which you may have to create)

> 3.       As I am interested in tracking expenses on a monthly basis, what
> is the best way to set up the above accounts to capture and manage
> transactions? Should I start afresh from say 1st Jan 2010 or can I start
> from any previous date?
>

You can set dates or periods in the reports, so I don't think that the first 
transaction dates are particularly important.

HTH,
Maf.