Accounting 101 Question: GnuCash Balance Sheets

[Anthony Nelson]

Hi All,

First, a warm thank you to the developers that have put so much into this
fine program.  I have been running a small business on it for at least three
years and so pleased to be away from QuickBooks.

Now on to the purpose of this email.

I am reviewing a balance sheet report generated from GnuCash and I have a
few questions.  I admit my bookkeeping skills are minimal as is my knowledge
of accounting so please be gentle!

>From the balance sheet assets report there are three numeric columns:
Column1 includes Current Assets and Fixed Assets (all are positive numbers
except for accumulated depreciation)
Column 2 includes Accounts Receivable (a positive number)
Column 3 includes Imbalance-USD ($23.11 in my case), a zero value for
Orphan-USD, and Total Assets.

Some questions:
1) Why are there three columns and what do they represent (the first two
don't seem to be credit/debit)?

2) Why are accounts receivables alone in the second column?

3) Why is the negative accumulated depreciation recorded under assets?
 Seems like a negative assets would really be a liability?  I read from some
website that Accumulated Depreciation is a "Contra Account".  What is the
contra account to Accumulated Depreciation?  Is it on the balance sheet or
elsewhere?

4) What is Imbalance-USD?  Is this something I need to fix in some way (I
don't like imbalances!)

Thanks in advance,
Tony