Split Transactions

[David Carlson]

On 5/6/2015 7:11 AM, Jonathan Garber wrote:
> Thank you David C. I tried Colin's idea of starting the line with the
> deposit amount but the final deposit amount would disappear after I opened
> it up as a split transaction AND some funny X's would appear in both spend
> and receive boxes in the split.
>
> I think at this point, I will just enter them as single entries. I
> appreciate all your suppport; Alice, Dave, Derek and Colin. And you if you
> are different person than Dave.
>
> Jonathan
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Actually, what you described here is normal when you have started a
split transaction entry but have not completed it yet.  The funny x's
tell you that the transaction is not currently balanced.  If you hit
Enter while those x's are present, GnuCash will automatically add a line
with the account Imbalance-YourDefaultCurrency.  If you select View>Auto
split Ledger it is easier to see what is happening without needing to
press the split button.  To add a line, tab off the right side of the
next-to-last line.

I confess that I did not try using the Basic Ledger view until I wrote
this reply.  In that view it is best to start a deposit transaction with
a description then tab over to the deposit box, enter a value, then hit
the split button.  then tab along to add the various other lines, memos
and amounts.  Using that sequence the pesky x's do not appear until you
add another amount.  One thing to watch for is to be sure that there is
only a number in the left or right box of each line, but not both, as
GnuCash will subtract one from the other when you tab or hit enter. 
Using this method, if you accidentally omit an account name, Gnucash may
assign the account name Orphan-YourDefaultCurrency.  Sometimes it seems
very quirky.

If you press enter while the x's are present then open the transaction
for editing you will notice that the lines have probably been re-ordered
because GnuCash wants to put the lines with numbers in the right-hand
amount boxes at the bottom.  That too is normal.  Now you can use the
tab or arrow keys to move around and change whatever needs to be fixed. 
To get rid of the Imbalance place the curser to the left of that box
then tab key delete key repeatedly until the line disappears.  When you
have the transaction in balance, those pesky x's will disappear. 
Finally, press Enter.

David C