[GNC] Confused Entering A Refund To Credit Card Account

[Michael or Penny Novack]

I'm going to break into bits as there are several things here


> What's confusing me is that I was not forgetting to add any 
> transactions in the split. GNUCash kept doubling the amount of the 
> total and subtracting all my split transactions from that doubled 
> total it invented and adding the difference to the Unbalanced-USD. I 
> eventually figured out how to do it after much trial and error. Then 
> when I got to this refund and tried to enter the splits it started 
> doubling the total of the transaction again. I still don't understand 
> why it does that.

1) It really would help if you knew what a journal entry looked like 
when bookkeeping was done pen and ink on paper. Because that is the 
"view" you are in, what the transaction entry would look like in the 
journal.

2) It would help if you knew debit from credit. Here the user friendly 
labels might not be your friend because they are account sensitive 
(change with account type) but when you are entering a split, just 
left/right   debit/credit   What is causing the behavior you find 
mysterious (what you see as doubling is because you still see the line 
you originally entered before you hit "split". THAT line is now (also) 
appearing in the "journal view" of the transaction that hitting "split" 
has opened for you.


> The software I was using before handled the split transactions by 
> adding each split to it's own account like GNUCash but the method of 
> entry was more intuitive. You enter split 1 with it's associated 
> account, then split 2 with it's associated account, then split 3 with 
> it's associated account, hit enter and you have your total. With 
> GNUCash I have to first enter the total amount* then enter split 1 
> with it's associated account, then split 2 with it's associated 
> account, then split 3 with it's associated account, close the split 
> then hit enter. If I get one thing wrong it will invent an extra 
> amount and add that to the Unbalanced-USD account. When that happens I 
> delete the thing and start over.

Practice splits. I am not QUITE sure what you mean by "split1", "split2" 
etc. You are presumably entering ONE split transaction, meaning a 
transaction that has more than just one debit and one credit. 
Essentially gnucash is providing a short cut method of entering 
transactions where only one of each. The "journal view" entry of a 
transaction is how ALL transactions used to be entered in the days 
before computer assisted accounting.

>
> Most of my transactions are split transactions because I even when 
> purchase only one item there is also the sales tax which is it's own 
> split transaction. 

Fair enough, but that's not a gnucash matter. I assume there is a good 
reason for you to be tracking sales tax expense separately from the 
ordinary expense of whatever was purchased. But again, use of the term 
"split". Say I write a check for $105 to buy a widget costing $100 and 
there was $5 sales tax on this purchase. That is ONE transaction, credit 
checking $105, debit widgets $100 and sales tax $5    Because more than 
one debit and one credit, can't use shortcut entry method but have to 
use "split" mode, or as I said "journal entry mode". There  are three 
LINES to this entry (one credit line and two debit lines) to this 
"split" transaction. The only reason you don't see two lines when 
entering a transaction that has exactly one debit and one credit is that 
you can use the shortcut method instead of "journal view" << but you 
COULD ask gnucash  to show you all transactions "journal view" --- go to 
some account. Look on the toolbar, "file" ......"View"....... and click 
on view to see your view options. TRY "journal view". Does what you see 
when you enter a "split" make any more sense

Michael D Novack

* PS -- that is with a ONE SIDED split and starting with the largest 
amount. If the transaction is split on both sides, more than one debt 
and more than one credit the amount for no account is going to be the 
"total" << although starting by "lying", starting with the total as the 
amount for the account you begin with and changing it later is one 
useful trick >>