GnuCash Income - How to manage?

[David Carlson]

On 7/12/2015 2:14 PM, Mike or Penny Novack wrote:
> pick the proper income account. Once you enter the transactions, the
> deposit will show in your checking, but also you can see it in the
> income account you picked.
>
> Gnucash is set by default to use (supposedly) more user friendly
> titles for the columns. But different people have different learning
> styles, so if new to double entry bookkeeping and you are having
> trouble "getting it" when presented this way you can tell gnucash to
> use the old fashioned "debit" and "credit", left side of ledger vs
> right side of ledger, and see if that makes it easier for you to
> learn. In the course of that you learn which sorts of accounts
> normally have a debit balance and which a credit balance (a ledger
> account is said to be on that side of the ledger that matches its
> normal balance).
>
> For ANY transaction, the net debits must total the net credits (the
> fundamental principle of double entry bookkeeping).
>
> Michael
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Another couple of points that I have not seen mentioned yet...

GnuCash, by it's design, makes it difficult to see at a glance which
type of account register you are in.  It makes a big difference if you
are using an asset (or liability) account as your base or if you are
using an Income (or expense) account.  It is easier to get used to it if
you stick to using asset accounts for cash or checking and liability
accounts for loans or credit cards for the first few months.  A
transaction representing purchasing groceries works differently if it is
done in an asset account than if it is done in a liability account,
because the running balances go in opposite directions.

This leads to the second point.  If you use the informal accounting
labels (which I personally prefer) instead of the formal debit and
credit labels, they change depending on the type of account you are in,
and even change when you are in a split line as opposed to the top line
of the transaction.  There is also a Preferences>Accounts>Reverse
balanced Accounts option which can further confuse you until you get
used to how it all works.  I think the default for that is Credit
Accounts if you have been experimenting.

A third point is to learn how the various register styles (Basic Ledger,
Auto-split ledger and Transaction Journal) work, and test to see how
double line mode works.  Each style has advantages for certain purposes,
that is why there are three choices and your choice will 'stick' to a
given account register the next time that you open it.


David C