Split transaction and figure 4.1 in the guide

[Tommy Trussell]

[I reordered the thread so I could bottom-post. see my reply at the end.]

>On Sun, Jul 19, 2015 at 3:20 PM, Denis <denis4433 at yahoo.fr> wrote:
>
>> With the help of figure 4.1, is there somewhere in the accounts or
>> reports  where the "Before tax" will or could show on a day to day
>> base and also, for example, show the total annual amount
>> "Before tax" ?
>>
>> I have an account entitled "Before tax" in the Revenues but the total
>> obviously stays to zero since Gnucash uses the "After tax" account.
>>
>> Any comments on this "Before tax" in figure 4.1 and this amount of
>> $670 ?  That would also help clear my mind a bit more on the way
>> Gnucash works ?
>>
>
>Just to be absolutely clear, I am looking at Figure 4.1 on this page:
>http://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.6/C/gnucash-guide/txns-registers1.html
>
>[image: Account Register - Split Transaction]
>
>In this case, the "Before Tax" annotation indicates the $1000 going into
>Income:Salary, and the other lines show the amounts "split" from that
>amount. The other amounts go into various taxes and into your bank account.
>In the example, $60, $90, and $180 dollars go into tax accounts, and the
>$670 is the amount that goes into your checking account. In other words,
>the company pays your salary of $1000, but the $670 is what you receive
>"after taxes" are deducted. (All of the amounts MUST "balance," and if they
>do not GnuCash will create a line to balance the splits.) In this case, $60
>+ $90 + $180 + $670 = $1000 so everything balances.
>
>You asked where you could see these things. When you look in the registers
>for Income:Salary or Expenses:Taxes:Federal you can see the total amounts
>accumulated for each of these accounts since you began using GnuCash OR
>since you optionally "closed the books" on those accounts. When you
>generate an income statement, you will see the Income:Salary account
>accumulating for however many payments you have received for the period of
>the report. If this transaction represents a weekly paycheck, then the
>total for Income:Salary for a whole year would be $52,000. ($1000 times 52
>weeks.) The total in your checking account would be $670 times 52 weeks
>($34,840) minus the amounts of all the checks and other deductions from
>your account during those 52 weeks, plus any additional deposits and
>transfers in.
>

On Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 7:56 AM, Denis <denis4433 at yahoo.fr> wrote:

>
> I was hoping for some kind of "dummy account" that would not interfere
> with Gnucast regular accounts and where all the amounts of those
> "Before tax" would accumulate. It was only something I was hopping
> for.
>
> Even if this is not possible Gnucast is still the best software I
> found after fifteen year of Quicken.
>
> Den
>

I recommend you spend a few minutes entering the transactions *as if* you
had accumulated a few months of them -- I don't really understand why you
need "dummy accounts" when it sounds like the ACTUAL accounts will contain
the information you're looking for.

ALSO I would like to point out that even though the example accounts
resemble something "regular," there's nothing special about them, except
they match the documentation. You can rename or reorder the accounts to
suit you, even after you have been using them for awhile. GnuCash can
automatically create a fresh set of accounts for you, but it's only to help
you get started.

Go ahead... go crazy! Try some of the examples in the documentation, and
enter some more data to see what happens with the totals and the reports.
THEN when you're more comfortable, create a new set of accounts from
scratch that match your actual situation.