[GNC] journal entries

[Mike or Penny Novack]

On 8/12/2019 12:45 PM, Clint Chaplin wrote:
> This is also similar to NetSuite, which is an on-line double entry
> bookkeeping service, and where "journal entries" are a special case
> transaction, even though by definition everything is really a journal entry.
>
It is definitely a terminology confusion.

In the old days, especially with "cash book" accounting*, a "journal 
entry" referred to a transaction that was not affecting any of the cash 
accounts. So mainly corrections and adjustments (example: recording 
depreciation).

It has no real meaning in a "virtual journal" system like gnucash.

Michael D Novack

* A shortcut where there was a special part of the ledger called the 
"cash book" which had the account for cash and a half dozen or so of the 
most affected other accounts. Any transactions that could skipped the 
"enter into the journal first" step and were entered directly in the 
cash book << usually 90+% of transactions could be >> Any transactions 
that affected OTHER accounts were entered the usual way, in the journal 
and then posted to the ledger.

When I did this, I usually reserved a pair of columns in the cash book 
for the journal. For example, using 12 column paper, I could have the 
journal, cash, and the four "most popular" other ledger accounts. Or 
possibly more if only keeping one side here << the "real" ledger had all 
the accounts, even those in the cashbook. At the bottom of each cashbook 
page the totals were posted to the "real account" >>

The reason for using a cashbook was to reduce posting. Transcription 
errors during posting were by far the majority of all errors.

Michael D Novack