Newbie Split Transaction Problem

[David Carlson]

On 12/13/2014 8:46 PM, Robin Chattopadhyay wrote:
> When you say that GnuCash is moving your values, are you possibly entering
> the values in as negative number? If you enter, for example, a credit as a
> negative number, Gnucash will represent the value as a positive debit.
>
> On Sat, Dec 13, 2014 at 5:53 PM, Paul Warthe <warthes7 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Thanks for your reply John. I realized that I did not explain everything
>> enough. I am following the example in the tutorial, entering the same
>> values in the same cells. GnuCash moves them over to the cells I show in my
>> results. It also recalculates and enters the values you see. Jcard21, this
>> may be the things that don't seem right to you. I wasn’t aware screen shots
>> could be posted to this list. I will see what I can do about posting one.
>>
>> I appreciate your help guys.
>>
>> Paul
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: John Ralls [mailto:jralls at ceridwen.us]
>> Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2014 5:10 PM
>> To: Paul Warthe
>> Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>> Subject: Re: Newbie Split Transaction Problem
>>
>>
>>> On Dec 13, 2014, at 11:21 AM, Paul Warthe <warthes7 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi everyone,
>>>
>>> I'm a newbie trying to work through the examples in the Help: Tutorial
>>> and Concepts Guide. I'm using version 2.6.3 built from git rev
>>> 166cbb7+ on 2014-04-01.
>>>
>>> My current problem is with split transactions. The program is not
>>> working the way it is described in the guide. Under the chapter
>>> "Transactions" "The Account Register" there is the example of entering
>>> a paycheck as a split transaction. Figure 4.1 shows: (my apologies in
>>> advance if the following doesn't line up in columns as does in the
>>> program.)
>>>
>>> Description                               Tot Deposit  Tot Withdrawal
>>> Balance
>>> Employers R Us                                 670.00
>>> 1,624.79
>>>     After Tax        Assets: Checking         670.00
>>>     Federal Tx       Expenses:Taxes:Federal   180.00
>>>     Medicare         Expenses:Taxes:Medicare   90.00
>>>     Social Security  Expenses:Taxes:Social     60.00
>>>     Before Tax       Income:Salary                     1,000.00
>>>
>>>
>>> When I attempt to enter this information, being careful not to use the
>>> "Enter" key, I end up with:
>>>
>>> Description                               Tot Deposit  Tot Withdrawal
>>> Balance
>>> Employers R Us                                 670.00
>>> 1,624.79
>>>     After Tax        Assets: Checking         670.00
>>>                      Imbalance                940.00
>>>     Federal Tx       Expenses:Taxes:Federal              490.00
>>>     Medicare         Expenses:Taxes:Medicare              90.00
>>>     Social Security  Expenses:Taxes:Social                30.00
>>>     Before Tax       Income:Salary                     1,000.00
>>>
>>> Also, when I am entering my data, I see small, greyed out boxes with an
>> "X"
>>> in them appear in the upper left corner of the cells. They disappear
>>> when I enter the transaction.
>>>
>>> Can anyone suggest what I may be doing wrong?
>> You’re putting the expenses in the wrong column.
>>
>> The little grey boxes are warning you that the transaction is out of
>> balance; when you save it GnuCash creates the imbalance split to
>> automatically balance it.
>>
>> Regards,
>> John Ralls
>>
>>
>>
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There is a possibility that you are entering a number in the left column
but not explicitly clearing out the number that GnuCash automatically
put in the right column or vice-versa.  Also note that GnuCash will
re-order the rows to put all the left column amounts and all the right
column amounts together when you finally do use the enter key.  When
GnuCash creates an Imbalance entry you can eliminate it by adding the
missing account and amount then  deleting each field in the Imbalance
row then tab out to the end.

David C