Can I simplify Gnucash?

Mike or Penny Novack mpnovack at mtdata.com
Sat Mar 19 17:33:23 EDT 2016


On 3/19/2016 10:28 AM, Barnet Love wrote:
> Love your program, but is it possible to simplify it?
Yes and no (you referred to specific things)
>
> I'm a Mac user. I don't need the "reconcile" tool
Don't use it. ALL tools are optional.

> or the "imbalance"
You apparently don't understand, or maybe I don't understand what you 
mean by "use gnucash". Gnucash is double entry bookkeeping. You can keep 
partial books if you like (I do, for special purposes) but it's still 
double entry. IMBALANCE is the bucket where gnucash sticks whatever 
amount you failed to allocate in balance. This is GREAT. In the old days 
of pen and ink on paper bookkeeping the amount from this sort of error 
disappeared. All you knew what that your books were not in balance (what 
a "trial balance" was for) but no way of knowing what transaction you 
screwed up. Here, just look at any transaction in IMBALANCE and it 
points you right to your mistake. Imbalance is your friend, you do NOT 
want it to not be there to catch your goofs.
>   or the "transfer" column.
The title above the main columns are your choice, can be traditional 
(debit and credit) or possibly more meaningful for the type of account. 
There is a third column because gnucash will show a running balance (the 
net of debit and credit)

If ALL you are interested in is being able to produce a report of income 
and expenses, you can simply ignore the "cash" account (or liability 
account) that would be the other side of an income or expense 
transaction. Only income and expense accounts would appear on (for 
example) the "Income Statement" (it's the "profit and loss" report)

Michael


>
> I just want to list income and expenses and be able to run a report at the end of the year.
>
> These features, while valuable to others, just confuse me.
>
> Is there a way to delete or disable those features?
>
> Thanks!
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> -----
> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>

-- 
There is no possibility of social justice on a dead planet except the equality of the grave.



More information about the gnucash-user mailing list