Split transaction: deposit/withdrawal meaning reversed?

David Carlson carlson.dl at sbcglobal.net
Thu Apr 5 09:30:34 EDT 2012


On 4/5/2012 7:01 AM, Jean-Christian Imbeault wrote:
> I'm new to Gnucash and currently trying to follow the very helpful
> online tutorial. I've gotten to section 4.2.2 which covers split
> transactions and need some help understanding what's happening when I
> create a split transaction.
>
> To help illustrate why I'm a bit confused ... when I want to deposit
> into my Assets:Checking account, I simply enter an amount in the
> Deposit column and chose a Transfer account. This will deposit into my
> Checking account and withdraw from the Transfer account.
>
> However when I create a split transaction the meaning of the deposit
> and withdrawal columns seem to be reversed. For example in the 4.4.2
> section, for the salary deposit example transaction, I need to enter a
> withdrawal from Income:Salary, and deposits into various Expense:
> accounts.
>
> If I were to try and do this as multiple simple transactions, I would
> do a deposit into Asset:Checking with the transfer account being
> Income:Salary.
>
> Why is it a deposit when doing a simple transaction, but a withdrawal
> when doing a split transaction? It's a bit confusing and I'd love to
> understand this.
>
> Sorry for the newbie question, I'm guessing it's probably been asked
> before. (I did try to search the archives but the search tools seems
> to be broken at the moment).
>
> Thanks!
>
> Jc
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> -----
> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>

Actually, in both cases you are making a deposit into your bank and
transferring it from income.  The difficulty is in wrapping your head
around the terminology.  Many people find it to be like trying to learn
how to ride a bicycle.  Just keep at it.  If you search U-Tube for
GnuCash, there are some videos which might help.

David Carlson
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 0xDC7C8BF3.asc
Type: application/pgp-keys
Size: 1729 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/attachments/20120405/f664c30e/attachment.bin>


More information about the gnucash-user mailing list