Credit split transactions

[Kevin Reid]

On Aug 14, 2011, at 6:11, Jim & Grace Flowers wrote:

> I start with a new transaction line, click on Split.  I enter a description,
> and then try to enter to total amount of the split.  It won't let me.  The
> figure shows an amount on that line.  I go ahead and enter all the splits
> and hit Enter.  The entry disappears from the Assets:checking account
> register.  However, when I check the accounts affected by the split, the
> amounts are posted properly (I had to change the amounts on a couple of
> them). There is an "outofbalance" account with the amount that should have
> been posted on the first line of the transaction.  When I changed the
> "posted to" name, it appeared in the checking account register.

It sounds to me like you are attempting to enter, on the main transaction line, the information which should be in a split line.

When you are in the Split view, *all* of the components of the transaction are to be entered in the additional split lines — including the one referring to the account whose register you are working in. That is why you cannot enter "the total amount of the split" on the first line; you should instead enter it as a split line, and the information will appear in the register. That is why it disappears from the register; a transaction appears in some account's register if and only if it mentions that account in one of its splits.

Here are two things you could do that might help build understanding of how GnuCash works:

  - Use View > Auto-Split Ledger mode, and look at your "normal"
    transactions as if they were splits.

  - Try entering transactions in Tools > General Ledger. This view is
    always split, and not specific to any one account, which reflects
    how transactions "really are" in GnuCash.

-- 
Kevin Reid                                  <http://switchb.org/kpreid/>