- Novice Question.

[John R. Sowden]

The reason you have an "imbalance" account entry is because GC allows 
you to create transactions that are out of balance, then does not warn 
you, so if you close a transasction before it is complete, GC moves the 
unposted amount to the 'imbalance' account, without warning or an audit 
trail.  No audit trail is why you cannot find the problem easily.  
Eventually you can find it unless more than one  transaction's 
'imbalance'  made up the current balance.  I have written about this 
before, as well as the fact that they want the transaction data entry to 
look like  Intuit (Quicken, etc.), so the amounts change before you eyes 
as you are making an entry.  There has been a debate as to whether the 
user should be warned before closing the transaction. (A debate?!)    
There should be a check box in the config file to allow the user 
(victim) to choose between Inuit style of data entry and standard 
accounting data entry.  The solution I was presented with on this forum  
was 'go find another accounting program'.

John R. Sowden
American Sentry Systems, Inc.
Small business owner for 45 years
2 Years Business Classes in our local Community College
Published Review of Accounting Packages
Designed various accounting programs starting with dBASE II under CP/M 
in 1981



On 11/11/2016 09:19 PM, Owen Carlton wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have just installed GnuCash 2.6.14 on my Win 10 Pro 64bit PC.
>
>   
>
> I had no issues setting up my Chart of Accounts.
>
>   
>
> I added the Opening Balances for 30/09/2016 and then Saved the File.
>
>   
>
> Today I entered Incomes and Expenses Account values for period ending
> 31/10/2016.
>
>   
>
> The problem I am seeing now relates to when I run the Balance Sheet Report.
>
>   
>
> Under Assets, I notice the numbers for the Assets Sub Accounts have not
> changed from the 30/09/2016 Opening Balances and there is a new Account
> (Imbalance-AUD) which has contains a figure of $14,713.
>
>   
>
> I cannot determine what has caused this to appear like this and cannot
> determine how that figure has been arrived at.
>
>   
>
> If I simply look at the Income and Expense Account Values for the period end
> 31/10/2016, I should see Income increased by a value of $813 and Expenses
> increased by $15806.
>
>   
>
> The only entries that cause me to worry I have done something wrong is as
> follows.
>
>   
>
> At the period ending 30/09/2016, I had three Banking Entries ( Cash at Hand
> Trading Account, Term Deposit 1 and Term Deposit 2 )
>
> At period ending 31/10/2016, I have an Expense Entry of $7000, which should
> reduce Cash at Hand Trading Account by $7000 and which needs to be
> Transferred back to Term Deposit 2 to increase it value.
>
> I cannot work out a method of Transferring this Expense Item to the Term
> Deposit 2 Account.
>
> Nor do I know if this $7000 is part of the Imbalance-AUD issue.
>
>   
>
> I am hoping someone with more experience than myself, can assist me in
> solving this issue.
>
>   
>
> Regards
>
> Owen Carlton
>
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