Beginner: Set up one account at a time, or all at once?

[David T.]

I'd give a slightly different answer*. I think it depends on how many transactions you have or expect to have. If you expect to have a lot of transactions, then I would do my best to flesh out the account structure (including expenses and income accounts) ahead of time. The reason is that Gnucash lacks a global find and replace function*, so that if you have to change a bunch of transactions, you have to do it one transaction at a time. This can be a chore if you have a lot of transactions* to change.

* - Now, for my disclaimers: 1) I am just another user. 2) There are plenty of ways to accomplish the alterations I mention, and overall, they are not that onerous. 3) The definition of "a lot of transactions" is entirely subjective, and must take into account a) your own comfort with Gnucash, b) your willingness to modify transactions, and c) any other factor I haven't thought of.


When I started using Gnucash, I was coming from a mature Quicken dataset where I had a full set of accounts already in place, and the accounts all fell into place. I have modified things along the way to better match my accounts up with things like how the IRS wants to see the information.

All that said, I imagine it won't be a problem either way. Do what's comfortable for you.

David


________________________________
From: FireFly <fireflys_98 at yahoo.com>
To: Ray Warren <raywarren2 at comcast.net>; "gnucash-user at gnucash.org" <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>; "gnucash-user at lists.gnucash.org" <gnucash-user at lists.gnucash.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 9, 2011 7:35 AM
Subject: Re: Beginner: Set up one account at a time, or all at once?

On Fri, Oct 07, 2011 at 05:14:53PM -0700, memilanuk wrote:


> Hello,
> 
> Just getting started w/ GnuCash on Ubuntu 11.04... I've tried using
> Quicken on Windows several times in the past, but always stalled out
> for one reason or another.  This time I'd like to stick with it,
> using GnuCash!
> 
> For someone just starting out and *not* an accounting guru or even
> enthusiast, would it be better to just start slow with one basic
> checking account and simple inputs (net paycheck) and outputs
> (mortgage payment, vehicle loan) and then later as I'm comfortable
> start defining those more fully i.e. flesh out the paycheck by
> breaking out taxes, retirement, union dues, etc. and later still
> fleshing out the mortgage payment, vehicle loans, etc.?
> 
> I realize I may not get a 100% accurate snapshot of my equity right
> off the bat this way, but from past experience it seems like I get
> kind of lost, not able to see the forest for the trees as the saying
> goes, when things get too complicated all at once.
> 
> Will it cause any problems in GnuCash if I do things in stages like this?
> 

Personally, I'd flesh out anything to accounts you own, i.e. 401k's, retirement accounts, other checking/savings accounts. Things that are "expenses" (i.e. taxes, mortgage payments, vehicle loan payments) I think you can start with as just expenses and later migrate them to GNUCash if you find you want to.
 
This is all assuming it's your personal accounting. People on this list are very helpful if you run into issues, and others have said the tutorials are pretty good.


- James Duerr

E-mail: FireFlys_98 at yahoo.com
---------------------
Discover a lost art - play Marbles. May 2004
www.marillion.com
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