Entering Split Transactions

[David Carlson]

On 12/29/2013 10:55 PM, Buddha Buck wrote:
> In a split, the left-hand column and the right-hand column have to balance.
>  In your example, you have 670+180+90+60=1000 in the left-hand column, and
> 1000 in the right-hand column.  That seems to balance to me.
>
> Perhaps the confusion is coming from the column headers: the right-hand
> column is shown in that screen-shot as "total withdrawal", but you aren't
> doing a withdrawal of 1000, so what's the 1000 doing there?  The answer is
> that while a regular "non-split" transaction shows the transaction from the
> viewpoint of one account of the two affected accounts, a "split"
> transaction shows the transaction from the viewpoint of all affected
> accounts simultaneously.  The "Account" column for the final row (with the
> $1000 "total withdrawal") shows the account "Income:Salary", which is where
> you are getting the money to deposit from.  But for the "Income:Salary"
> account, the right-hand column is not "total withdrawal", it's "Income"
> (with the left-hand being "Charge").  It make sense for the $1000 that goes
> into your checking account, taxes, etc to be recorded as "Income" from your
> Income:Salary account.
>
> There are 5 accounts in this transaction.  In one, the left-hand/right-hand
> columns read "Deposit/Withdrawal", in three, they read "Expense/Rebate",
> and in the last, they read "Charge/Income".  It is impossible to show all
> those labels at once, so only the labels for the account in that register
> (Checking) is used.  I just noticed that when selecting a split, they all
> get "Tot. " prepended, which may be making things more confusing.
>
> This is one of the reasons I, personally, use "formal accounting labels".
>  For me, every left-hand column is labelled "Debit", and every right-hand
> column is labeled "Credit" (or "Tot Debit/Tot Credit" with splits).  So
> when I look at an analogous transaction, I can see my total debits equal my
> total credits in a split, and I know that for my salary, my "After Tax"
> salary is debited to my checking account and my "Before Tax" salary is
> credited to my Income:Salary account.
>
> Does this help?
>
>
> On Sun, Dec 29, 2013 at 10:07 PM, Bob Qualls <bobqualls84 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> As I'm trying to master entering split transactions, as demonstrated in the
>> tutorial (see attachment as a location reference in the tutorial), I find
>> that I have to continually clear the amount entered by default in the
>> "Withdrawal" column to get the numbers to work out correctly.  Is this
>> typical behavior, or am I doing something incorrectly?
>>
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When you are adding new lines to a partially entered split transaction
you will notice that GnuCash wants to add another entry at the bottom to
complete the transaction balance.  This is normal.  There are a couple
of different ways to cope with this.  The method that I use is to
religiously use the tab key to move through the fields while entering
data, remembering to delete that extra value as I encounter it.  I try
to avoid using the Enter key until I am done, as that will cause all the
lines with numbers in the right hand column to move to the bottom and
any leftover amount gets assigned to "Imbalance".  Once I have a model
transaction in the register I usually just 'Duplicate' it next time and
change the date and amounts.

It also helps to plan the order of the lines to enter the right hand
column lines last.  That way, GnuCash enters the last number for me.

David C