Split transactions are killing me

[Cat P]

Hello,

It sounds like your total is not mapped to the right account? Sounds to
me like you're putting your total in an expenses account (the parent to
the children making up the split transactions) instead of the account
where the money comes from (asset or liability). I might have misread it
though, just a hypothesis.

I'm forwarding below a message I sent some time ago but forgot to copy
to the list. I hadn't realised straight away because I was having
problems with my email and not receiving all my messages.

Hope it's of some use.


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Split transactions are killing me
Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 06:27:10 +0100
From: Cat P <barking at gmx.com>
To: musasabi <1musasabi at gmail.com>

Hi there,

I find it practical to have the register default set to transaction
journal, so the view is consistent.

As far as I know, the 'quiet deletion' only happens if you're working on
a certain account and, for any reason, the transaction you're writing no
longer refers to that account, maybe after you've overwritten by
mistake. In that case, chances are you'll find your unfinished
transaction in the imbalance account, where you can go and edit it.

In order to prevent overwriting by mistake, I always start from the
account that bears the total, so, for example, I start split expenses
from the relevant asset or liability account making sure I enter the
credit first.

If you have a voucher or anything that reduces the expenses total, it is
probably easier to add it first too, again in the credit column. I
prefer to have such things at the end of the transaction so I make sure
I don't overwrite the credit once the total has been reached.

I hope I'm not leaving out anything important, as I  sort of enter
transactions in pilot mode. Once you've got a consistent method, it's
very quick and easy.

Hope this helps.

Cat



On 11/07/2013 01:09, firtree wrote:
> I don't know if this thread is too old, but I'm having similar frustrations
> and followed all the above suggestions and it still isn't working. I'm
> trying to use a split for all my at&t expenses. I put in at&t, tabbed to
> expense, put in the total, then opened the split. I then tried adding the
> amounts for landline, internet, cell etc, but gnucash put them all over on
> the right, changed the amounts and when i filled in the last one, the total
> amount was way off. 
> 
> I've tried several times and it just isn't being friendly. What am I not
> getting?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> 
> 
> --
> View this message in context: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/Split-transactions-are-killing-me-tp4659060p4663015.html
> Sent from the GnuCash - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
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