ORPHAN vs. IMBALANCE

[John Ralls]

> On Feb 6, 2015, at 10:34 AM, David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> Could someone explain to me the difference between ORPHAN and IMBALANCE accounts in GnuCash? 
> Under different circumstances, GnuCash creates these accounts, and I honestly don't understand what the differences are meant to be. 
> I searched the list archives, and saw Derek's 2011 response in http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2011-September/041127.html, but I honestly don't understand his explanation of the circumstances under which one is chosen over the other.
> Is the difference significant, or would it be possible to eliminate one of these accounts from the software?

Here are a couple of examples to clarify:
  6 Feb 2015 Grocery Store
                                    Assets:Current:Checking            173.22
                                    Expenses:Groceries                           73.22
                                                                                100.00

The transaction balances but the third split is missing an account entry so GnuCash will create an Orphan account and credit the 100.00 to it.
  6 Feb 2015 Grocery Store
                                    Assets:Current:Checking           173.22
                                    Expenses:Groceries                           73.22
                                    Assets:Current:Cash in Wallet                50.00

In this case the transaction is out of balance and Gnucash will create an Imbalance account and credit it with 50.00.

I don’t feel strongly either way about whether there needs to be a distinction.

Regards,
John Ralls