[GNC] Account setup

Tue Sep 28 19:49:01 EDT 2021

Rogier

The GunCash Help manual 
https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v4/C/gnucash-help/trans-edit.html discusses this
very briefly " press the Split button on the Toolbar or select Actions → Split
Transaction". The entry of multisplit transactions is discussed in detail  in
the help manual at 
https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v4/C/gnucash-help/trans-multi-enter.html. 

There is also some discussion in the Guide 
https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v4/C/gnucash-guide/chapter_txns.html. 

Once the splits of the transaction are displayed you can use the mouse or tab
key to get to the item you wish to change. The tab key ( nd not the Enter key)
can take you past the last split line in a transaction to add an additional line
where necessary. The accounts fields will give you drop down lists to select
from. GnuCash forces a transaction to be balanced, i.e. the sums of credit and
debit entries (or deposit and withdrawal if using nonaccounting terminology)
must be equal and GnuCash will arbitrarily introduce an entry to an imbalance
account to force this when editing or entering multisplit transactions. 

The trick is to adjust the debits and credits to the other desired transaction
splits so that any entry to an imbalance account split becomes zero before
pressing enter to close the transaction. This can be a challenge until you get
the hang of it.

David Cousens

On Tue, 2021-09-28 at 19:04 -0400, Rogier F. van Vlissingen wrote:
> thanks,
> 
> I agree with you, in this case though it is about the one time setup of the
> opening balances, and I made a typo, but I was not able to figure out how
> to edit the transaction. But I think maybe I have it now, I think it is you
> go in to the GL Journal and then you can edit the line items. The whole
> point is that if you keep that setup in ONE transaction, you can make sure
> that it balances. Having said that, I am not clear how to add another line
> item to an existing transaction.
> 
> For anything after that, I would agree with your observation that it is not
> kosher to edit a transaction, you always make a correcting entry. I think
> what I have here is a special case, just setting up the opening balances. I
> was moving from QB to Gnucash.
> 
> 
> <
> http://rogierfentenervanvlissingen.me?promo=email_sig&utm_source=product&utm_medium=email_sig&utm_campaign=gmail_api&utm_content=thumb
> >
> Rogier Fentener van Vlissingen <http://rogierfentenervanvlissingen.me>
> 
> <
> http://rogierfentenervanvlissingen.me?promo=email_sig&utm_source=product&utm_medium=email_sig&utm_campaign=gmail_api&utm_content=thumb
> >
> 
> 
> On Tue, Sep 28, 2021 at 6:23 PM Michael or Penny Novack <
> stepbystepfarm at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> > On 9/28/2021 1:16 PM, Rogier F. van Vlissingen wrote:
> > > Thanks to everyone for helping out.
> > > 
> > > What worked for me in the end was
> > > 
> > >     1. to set up the COA first, without attempting any opening balances,
> > and
> > >     then
> > >     2. to create a single transaction to set up the opening balances on
> > >     1/1/2020.
> > > 
> > > As it was, I had an ending trial balance on 12/31/2020, but there were a
> > > few mistakes floating around, so in my setup, I made those corrections,
> > and
> > > settled it against retained earnings, by making that the final line item
> > in
> > > my opening transaction.
> > > 
> > > 
> > >     - One thing I was not able to figure out. If I do set up this way,
> > and I
> > >     made a mistake in my initial g/l transaction is there a way to edit
> > that
> > >     transaction, or am I doomed to simply start over and do it the right
> > way?
> > >     - And since I made a false starts, I now have a couple of sets of
> > books
> > >     that I want to get rid of, but I wasn't sure how to do it, other
> > than just
> > >     deleting the file in the file system.
> > 
> > a) Correcting the books --- this depends on how formal you are. Gnucash
> > will allow you to edit exiting transactions. That is the informal way,
> > maybe OK for personal books unlikely to be audited. The technically
> > correct way in formal bookkeeping is to enter a correction transaction
> > offsetting the error, with description referring to the original being
> > corrected. That's what I do, but then most of my books are
> > organizational, not my personal books. A treasurer of an organization
> > should do it the right way.
> > 
> > b) Deleting  books --- yes, simply delete the file. Just like to make a
> > backup you make a copy of the file.
> > 
> > Michael D Novack
> > 
> > 
> > 
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