[GNC] Help on daily cash income and bank statements

[Jim DeLaHunt]

On 2020-11-24 10:28, alison Stoner via gnucash-user wrote:
> …I own a bakery so where would I put my daily cash sales to.  So basically till cash, restaurant cash etc
> I tried in income but keeps going over to charge so always in red.  Am I doing this wrong?
> To put on my whole bank statement where?
> I am ready to throw towel in in so please help.  I have always used pastel so am really clueless with this

Hello, Alison, and welcome to the learning curve!

 > I am ready to throw towel in in so please help.  I have always used 
pastel so am really clueless with this

There really is a lot to learn, so I sympathise. An important thing to 
bear in mind is that GnuCash is designed in line with accounting 
principles, and really likes to expose those principles. If it has to 
choose between making things easy, and making things powerful enough for 
trained accountants, GnuCash will put the power in place for the 
accountants first, then try to make things easy if they can. I don't 
know Pastel. If it chooses ease of use over power, then that will add to 
the GnuCash learning curve. They payoff is, once you learn it, GnuCash 
will take your accounting a long way.

One of the ways GnuCash's trade-off is exposed is that every transaction 
in GnuCash has two or more "splits", or accounts and amounts involved in 
the transaction. These splits must always add up to zero. This is an 
important accounting principle. (Zero value, rather than zero currency 
units, which is another example of accounting power intruding on 
simplicity and ease.)

I think the best part of the documentation for you now is the Tutorial, 
Chapter 5. Checkbook 
<https://www.gnucash.org/viewdoc.phtml?rev=4&lang=C&doc=guide 
<https://www.gnucash.org/viewdoc.phtml?rev=4&lang=C&doc=guide>>.

You should have a GnuCash Account corresponding to your business bank 
account, the place where you deposit cash from your till. You may well 
want a GnuCash Account corresponding to the cash in your till. Both of 
these will be under Asset in GnuCash.

You should have a GnuCash Account, under Income, corresponding to Sales. 
Maybe you make it specific to Cash Sales.

I find it easiest to enter transactions from the GnuCash Account 
corresponding to the real-world bank account or till. So, when you want 
to record a cash sale, where you put cash into the till, start by 
opening the Asset:Till Account in GnuCash. Make a transaction there. 
Under Account (the other side of the transaction), enter Income:Sales. 
Under Deposit, enter the amount of the sale. Now, you should see the 
balance of the Till account increase, to match the increased amount of 
cash in the till.

When you deposit cash from the till into your bank account, start by 
opening the Asset:BankAccount Account in GnuCash. Make a transaction 
there. Under Account, enter Asset:Till. Under Deposit, enter the amount 
of the bank deposit. You should see the balance of the BankAccount 
account increase. If you go back to the Till Account, you should see a 
transaction which has the same amount, but under Withdrawl, with 
Asset:BankAccount under Account.

If you want to compare your bank statement against your GnuCash 
bookkeeping, start by opening the Asset:BankAccount Account in GnuCash. 
There should be a transaction there for each transaction on your bank 
account.  Chapter 5. Checkbook has instructions on this compare process, 
in section "Reconciling Your Accounts".

 > Look forward to reply and help

I hope that is helpful. If it is, do you think you could arrange to 
attach a croissant or sticky bun to your next list posting? Include 
enough for everyone on the list, of course. :-)

Best regards,
        —Jim DeLaHunt, Vancouver, Canada

> Welcome Alison
>
> Yes, if you can do this extra data entry you will help your accountant
> and hopefully have to pay less to them!
>
> There is LOTS to learn, so we recommend making a practice set of
> accounts to learn on, and reading the user guide.
> The main user guide is
> https://code.gnucash.org/docs/C/gnucash-guide.pdf
> and the quick version is here
> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/GnuCash_Quick_Start_Guide_For_Business_Users
>
> Play around and come back here with your questions.
> "gnucash-user at gnucash.org" <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
>
> If you subscribe to the list you won't have to wait for the Moderator
> to let your emails through.
>
> Liz
>