Split transaction: deposit/withdrawal meaning reversed?

[Steven Stern]

On 04/07/2012 02:36 PM, Colin Law wrote:
> On 7 April 2012 17:58, Wm Tarr <wm.tarr at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 2012-04-07 16:22, Bob Taylor wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear Jc,
>>>
>>> Perhaps it will help to explain something which may not have been made
>>> clear. Â The register in GC is used for two really quite different functions.
>>> Â I know folks here think they are doing "double entry" bookkeeping, but in a
>>> double-entry system one made first an entry in a Journal (so-called because
>>> kept daily) and then posted the entries to income, expense or capital
>>> accounts (that is to say, the amounts were written on ledger pages). Â The
>>> journal entry was complete and balanced. Â The account entries (called in the
>>> text books, T-accounts, because they look like a capital T) had only a date
>>> and amount and perhaps a page and line reference to the Journal so that the
>>> transaction could be traced back. Â (Manual bookkeeping was a very great deal
>>> of work.).
>>>
>>> GC replaces the Journal and T-accounts with the Register. Â Each entry in
>>> the register represents an entry in the T-account, but shows also the
>>> Journal entry. Â This is readily apparent when you press the Split button,
>>> which opens a sort of window onto the Journal entry.
>>>
>>> Actually if you open the General Ledger window on the Tools menu you will
>>> see what amounts to the General Journal. One could use it for that purpose
>>> but in GC one can make a journal entry in any register and the entire
>>> transaction will appear in the register for every account affected.
>>>
>>> Let me add that the Journal/ T-account concept is fundamental to
>>> accounting even now, although no one keeps books that way any more. Â See any
>>> financial accounting text book.
>>>
>>> I do hope my explanation helps clear up your confusion and does not add to
>>> it. Â If the latter, please ignore.
>>>
>>> Regards and Best Wishes, Bob
>>>
>>
>> I think this message was plain rude, to the OP, we are not all like that.
> 
> What?  To me it seemed very informative and helpful.  I certainly
> learned from it.  In what way is it rude?
> 
> Colin L.

Agreed, it's helpful.  The first program I wrote read punch cards coded
as "J", "T", or "D" in the first column.  The program entered
transactions into a General Ledger.


-- 
-- Steve