QuickBooks to GnuCash -- Apologies for wrong question

Yawar Amin yawar.amin at gmail.com
Fri May 7 19:35:51 EDT 2010


Hi Tom,

On 2010-05-07, at 17:28, Tom Bullocik wrote:
> [...]
> In using the chart GC seems only to be able to use the chart in a larger to
> smaller manner.  For example, Expense:name of account.  That works fine once
> you are used to using it.  But getting to that point for someone with a
> developed chart (that can have two or three additional levels below the
> account name) is rather difficult and tiresome.   That is, there is a big
> learning curve to be climbed.   For me typing 4-6 digit number is faster
> than the present method.  That is because numbers over time have become a
> strength for me.   The trick with GC is to learn what the shortest
> abbreviations are to make accurate your uses of the chart:  E:7:72:722:7221,
> as an example.
> 
> It also means that if I insist on using numbers I need to put them at the
> head of the account name description field followed by the descriptive
> words.  GC so far does not respond to account numbers, at least in the
> fields I used to capture them.

I just want to quickly point out GnuCash's account codes to you--they seem to be exactly what you're looking for. If somehow you don't see them in the main Accounts tab in GnuCash, you can click the drop-down arrow on the right of the column headings (Account Name, Present, Total, etc.) and make sure to check the Account Code column heading. It should be the first one listed. Now you should be able to see all the account codes right on the chart of accounts itself (once you set them up).

To set up account codes, you'll have to edit each individual account where you want a code (right-click the account and click Edit Account, or select the account and click Edit on the toolbar). When the Edit Account dialog box pops up, you'll see a text entry box called Account code, right below Account name. You can enter the code there.

Once you've entered some codes and want to try them out, just enter a transaction as normal in the General Ledger (for example) but instead of typing the account name, just type the account code and press Tab to go on to the next field and have GnuCash automatically fill in the correct account name.

> However, that does not mean it is not worth climbing the learning curve. 
> Once I have mastered that, I will be able to use GC as it is intended.  It
> is a very good program and growing all the time.  So I am willing to invest
> in the necessary effort.

Since you're a new user with few transactions but an accounting background, I recommend keeping a special backup copy of your GnuCash file (in addition to normal backups) with all accounts set up the way you like them, but with no transactions. This can be tremendously helpful if and when you want to share your chart of accounts in a pre-built GnuCash file, or if you want to close off a previous year and its transactions and start a fresh new file.

 HTH,

  Yawar

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