New User to GnuCash

Fross, Michael michael at fross.org
Thu Dec 14 13:53:56 EST 2017


Hi Jack,

I'm also a convert about a year ago to GNUCash.  They are *all* real
accounts.  But if you are like me, your institutional accounts are not
really in expenses where most of the category accounts lie.  I have my
traditional bank accounts in Assets (as well as brokerage accounts, home
equity, etc)  Credit cards are in Liabilities.   The expenses and income
accounts are mostly the old categories from Quicken.  For me, the only
account in Equity is the "Opening Balance" account.

Hope that makes sense.

Michael

On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 12:25 PM, Jack Slater <theilliniguy at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks for the feedback!
>
> I'll get to that and read thru. Then if I am a typical Quicken fool I'll be
> back for more direction!
>
> I'm wondering then if there is a way to designate the "real" accounts in
> the massive Account Listing so i can see/sort or make those stand out from
> the "non-real" accounts.
>
> On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 12:03 PM, D <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > Jack,
> >
> > Welcome to Gnucash, and welcome to this list.
> >
> > Before you tinker with the account structure in Gnucash, I strongly
> > recommend that you read the Basics section in the Tutorial & Concepts
> Guide
> > (available on the Gnucash website). The 4 chapters there will give you a
> > better understanding of some of the fundamental ways that Gnucash differs
> > from Quicken.
> >
> >
> > Specifically, you will want to look at how Gnucash's double entry aspects
> > affect file structure. Gnucash doesn't have categories; rather, it uses
> > accounts for this purpose. Many refugees from Quicken find this a
> difficult
> > adjustment to make.
> >
> > After you have read these chapters, you will understand that you probably
> > will want to keep all those accounts--after all, you had the categories
> for
> > a reason! You'll also understand how Gnucash reflects a more formal
> > accounting system than Quicken.
> >
> > A quick way to determine whether to keep all those accounts: open each of
> > them up, and if there are transactions listed in the register, then you
> > won't want to delete that account.
> >
> > Rest assured, however, that if you did try to delete one of these
> > accounts, Gnucash would prompt you to designate where these transactions
> > should be moved.
> >
> > Hope this helps,
> > David
> >
> >
> > On December 14, 2017, at 10:07 PM, Jack Slater <theilliniguy at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > I dropped Quicken finally and have been trying GC for a few days. So far
> it
> > seems like a great replacement but I'm a total noob.
> >
> > My first question:
> > I did an import from Quicken and I guess I misunderstood the terminology
> > differences.  When I look at the GC Accounts window - it is a complete
> > listing of both (what were names in Quicken) Accounts and Categories, now
> > just all listed as Accounts.
> >
> > I'd like to get rid of the Categories listings yet retain the "true"
> > Accounts but want to make sure that if I just delete them, I'm not
> harming
> > data "under the hood" so to speak.
> >
> > I hope I'm approaching the mailing list help process correctly and also
> > hope to get good enough that I could eventually help others.
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > Jack in Illinois
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