[GNC] two lines for every entry

[David Cousens]

Hi Todd,

>Do I set up two separate accounts for 1 and 2 above?


Yes. If you used the common accounts selection when you created a new file you should have an account tree with a basic
set of common asset, liability, equity, expense and income accounts. They make a good starting point for a beginning
chart of accounts. There should be a liability account for a credit card and multiple expense accounts for things that
most people would track separately. You can add to this or prune it as you need.

> Uhhhh.  I pay my card off from all different sources.  I do not
> want them linked. I only care that a payment was made.  From
> where, I don't care.  I basically want my credit card accounts to be
> stand alone.

Each source you use to pay off your credit card should have its own account in GnuCash. GnuCash is a full featured
accounting package designed to track where money is coming from and where it is going to, what you owe and what is owed
to you and what your net financial worth is.  You could in principle do that by having a generic Asset:bank account that
payments are made from and a single generic expense account to record charges against it, but it would be serious
overkill to use GnuCash just get that capability. It is also designed to track what types of expenses you spend money
on. Expense accounts are similar to expense categories in some other accounting packages which are either not full
double entry accounting systems or try to hide the double entry nature from the user.

Oh no doubt.  The learning curve is going to kill me.

None of us have died yet AFAIK. I am sure there are quite a few cases of raised blood pressure at times. If you need a
full accounting system then it is worth the effort.

David Cousens