[GNC] The Meaning of Split (previously Example of multi-split feature of CSV importer?)

[Michael Hendry]

> On 21 Mar 2019, at 15:15, Adrien Monteleone <adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net> wrote:
> 
> I’m not sure ‘ledger entry’ is a prime choice either. If we were to consider the pen and paper world, this is done as a ‘journal entry’ but that entry always has two components (debit and credit) with at minimum two accounts involved. I’m going to dig up my accounting textbook and see how they reference the entries but I’m going to hazard an early guess that there is no mention of the individual parts of the transaction other than debit/credit.

Just checked my ancient primer, which starts a new business with a contribution of £3000 of capital from John Brown to the Cash Account.

Two ledger pages are created, one called “Cash Account” numbered “L1" and the other “Capital Account - John Brown” numbered “L2”.

On the Debit side of L1 there is a entry recording Capital of £3000 received from L2.

On the Credit side of L2 there is a corresponding entry of a transfer of Cash to L1.

These two separate but linked “Ledger Entries" make up the one “Transaction".

I’d be surprised if the overall process is different in the US, but the nomenclature might well diverge.

Regards,

Michael

> 
> Regards,
> Adrien
> 
>> On Mar 21, 2019, at 9:46 AM, D via gnucash-user <gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:
>> 
>> It seems circular to say that there is a distinction between a simple and compound transaction, and then say a simple transaction is a special case compound transaction. Then we're back at defining the difference between, say, a "split" transaction versus a "multi-split" transaction, which we're trying to move away from as justifiably confusing.
>> 
>> Calling one a "simple" transaction, and the others "compound" seems like enough. Perhaps the explanation of the technical aspects of this (i.e., the structure of a two sided simple, as opposed to an n-sided {n>2} compound transaction), could use the term "split," as it is defined by  Gnucash. This would disambiguate the use of the term "split," such that it would only be used for this specific case. 
>> 
>> Regardless, I am still against the "Ledger entry" locution. 
>> 
>> Perhaps we need a translation from American English to British English...
>> 
>> David
>> 
> 
> 
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