Capital equipment showing zero value

[Mike or Penny Novack]

Henry Gomersall wrote:

>I'm currently using Gnucash to keep the accounts for my (currently
>small) startup.
>
>I recently purchased some equipment from the US, for which I entered a
>bill in USD attached to the vendor, with the transfer from
>Assets->Capital Equipment.
>
>Now I've (finally) managed to get the bill paid with the correct amounts
>in all of the currencies (see note below*), and the capital equipment
>register account contains the equipment, it just has zero value
>associated with it, which is not what I want. Should I have added this
>as an expense somewhere?
>
>  
>
No, not an expense.

We have to try to figure out what you did wrong. In generalized terms

a) You had a transaction acquiring this (fixed) asset in return for a 
liability to the vendor (not from assets -- you didn't pay yet)
b) You later liquidated this liability by paying the vendor

This should have left a balance in capital equipment. Only the first 
transaction affected that account

Michael