how to automatically update equity account as each transaction is entered?

[Francis Gerund]

Hi Tommy,

Thanks for the advice.  I'll keep it in mind.


On Tue, Apr 19, 2016 at 11:41 AM, Tommy Trussell <tommy.trussell at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 9:00 PM, Francis Gerund <ranrund at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Geert,
>> Sorry, but I could not even begin to "suggest improvements to the
>> documentation", or "help write some missing parts".  One has to learn
>> something first, before trying to teach it to others.
>>
>> Michael,
>> I am thinking maybe I should just forget GnuCash for now, and just try to
>> re-learn what accounting I did know years ago, the way I learned it then:
>> by using paper ledger pads - the kind you can still get at office supply
>> stores.  Agonizingly tedious, but at least the ledger pads won't argue
>> with
>> the accounting books (with me in the middle)!
>>
>
>
> You may be presuming that any documentation you write would be used to
> teach someone the correct way to use GnuCash, but given your experience,
> maybe you might consider keeping a journal about how things went awry! If
> you consider it a story about a journey to learn, maybe that mindset would
> help you and others. I know it might be helpful to folks as they consider
> how to improve the software.
>
> I think most of us who have never been trained in "proper" accounting
> might benefit from more experiences of someone making a transition from
> paper ledgers.
>
> You might also benefit from reading the email list archives, because
> beginner issues have been discussed numerous times; maybe you just haven't
> yet seen any messages that related to your particular issues.
>
> FURTHERMORE I hope you also haven't completely given up on the
> documentation...
>
> http://www.gnucash.org/docs.phtml
>
>  -- some folks have misunderstood the distinction between the two manuals.
>
> The Help Manual mostly contains the Help text that gets installed into the
> application, so after some brief introductory text, most sections are
> focused on individual pieces of the software and how to get specific tasks
> completed, written assuming you are also looking at the screen trying to
> get a task done.
>
> The Tutorial and Concepts Guide gives an overview of the software, and
> includes tutorials. By working through a few of the examples, many folks
> have been able to get a better sense for what the software is doing. The
> Concepts Guide also describes how the software supports general accounting
> principles.
>
> As you go through the documentation and try the software, if you keep a
> journal of what worked and what didn't, your perspective might be useful to
> anyone writing new documentation (or maybe even answering questions on the
> list). If you found the examples irrelevant, that's important, too,
> especially if you can also supply an example from your own ledgers.
>
> As you can see from the documentation page, someone has also written a
> book, sold through normal book vendors. It's several years old now, but
> possibly you can inspect the free sample pages and see if maybe its
> approach is more to your liking.
>
>