basic confusion in chapter 4

[Kevin Reid]

On Sep 4, 2011, at 11:24, waltonss at flash.net wrote:

> At the beginning of chapter 4 in the tutorial, the grocer expense was entered in he “withdrawal” column, but tax expenses were entered in the “deposit” column. When I view the list of accounts everything appears OK.  How do I know which column to use when I enter my real expenses?

Generally:

If you think, as I prefer to, of the accounting as {sum of all account balances} = 0 (i.e. liabilities ordinarily have negative balances, whether or not they're displayed that way -- there's a preference for that display), then the left column holds increases in that account's balance and the right column is always decreases in that account's balance.

Or: For any asset or liability account (as opposed to equity, income, or expense), the left column is the one which benefits you (increases asset, reduces liability).

Specifically:

In the tutorial chapter 4, the tax items are entered on the left because they are increases in the balances of the expense accounts.

Do not take the "deposit" part literally. The column headings displayed depend on the account type, and those headings do not always make sense for the split display, because those headings are from the perspective of the displayed account (in the example, the Assets:Checking register), whereas the split-lines are for different accounts (such as Expenses:Taxes:Federal).

If you want, you can replace the customized labels with uniform ones: Preferences → Accounts → Use formal accounting labels.

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