Confusion over Salary and Savings account usage

[prl]

Hi, Maveri.

I think that what Maf was getting at is that it's useful if the debits 
and credits to your GnuCash (bank) assets accounts match the debits and 
credits that you'll see in your bank statement for the corresponding 
bank accounts. Otherwise it's harder to reconcile your bank statement 
with the record in the account in GnuCash. Doing it that way also means 
that the transactions in GnuCash actually reflect what you did with your 
actual bank account; salary of $1000 paid into the bank account one day, 
transfer $500 from the bank account to your wallet with a separate 
withdrawal, perhaps on a different day.

When I made the suggestion about using the split transaction to put the 
$1000 of salary into two accounts, I assumed that what you had was an 
arrangement with your bank to automatically split your salary into two 
accounts when the money was paid in, say a standing order for the bank 
to put $500 of your salary straight into your cheque account and the 
remainder ($500 in this case) into your savings account. The bank I use 
allows that: " You can have all or part of your salary automatically 
paid and distributed to your various <somebank> accounts. "

Also, you don't need to use Auto-Split Ledger to use (or view) splits. 
You can right-click on a transaction and select Split Transaction in 
Basic Ledger. That will show the transaction's splits if it's a split 
transaction, and open up the transaction for entering splits if it's not 
(e.g, if you're entering a new transaction). If most of your 
transactions aren't splits, then using Basic Ledger might be more 
convenient than using Auto-Split Ledger. The Transaction Journal view 
will show all splits open all the time (and both sides of each ordinary 
transaction). I use the Basic Ledger/Double Line view almost all the time.

Peter

On 4/07/13 17:46, maveri wrote:
> Hi Maf,
>
> In my case, I am using gnucash in a learning mode before I start entering
> everything into it and go full swing with it - until now I am not using any
> system so I'm very green in terms of tracking things properly. I have on
> occasions put major items into an excel spreadsheet for tax purposes but
> this is for targeted items - so I'm more than open to real world suggestions
> such as yours
>
> I think your approach is probably going to be more in-line with how I wish
> to go, the transfers out of the salary would be spread over days normally,
> so perhaps a split transaction would not be the best in terms of tracking
> individual items. The only benefit I could see is if one wanted to see how
> much of a particular salary was consumed in a given period?
>
> I also notice that to view a split transaction requires viewing via the auto
> split ledger, I was hoping it would expand out through a simple double click
> - having everything displayed on the one screen is more in-line with what I
> want, so I will modify what I'm doing to follow your suggestion
>
> Thanks all for your help to date
>
>
>
> --
> View this message in context: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/Confusion-over-Salary-and-Savings-account-usage-tp4662903p4662909.html
> Sent from the GnuCash - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> _______________________________________________
> 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.
>