[GNC] two lines for every entry

David Cousens davidcousens at bigpond.com
Thu Apr 11 02:47:39 EDT 2019


Todd,

The conceptual bit behind double entry bookkeeping is that when you charge
something to your credit card you:
 1. Increase the balance of your credit card (a credit entry); and at the
same time
 2. Increase the balance of an expense account ( a debit entry).

Similarly when you pay your credit card you:
  1 Decrease the balance in your bank account (a credit entryand at the same
time
  1 Decrease the balance of your credit card account (a debit entry).

Many single entry account systems often hide one of these steps from you and
make assumptions about where the second entry takes place. 

The process is similar for other transactions as well. Two or more accounts
(e.g with Sales tax) are affected by each transaction, hence the two lines
(known as splits in GnuCash) that appear when an entry in an account
register is opened to reveal the splits. In the above the brackets identify
the colums the amount will appear in when using the formal accounting
labels. Each transaction must have at least one debit and one credit
component (it may have more than one of each) and the sum of the debit
entries must equal the sum of the credit entries. 

As Adrien suggested, reading the introductory material will introduce you to
the jargon used and provide the necessary background to effectively use
GnuCash.

David Cousens




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David Cousens
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