[GNC] Splitting a Transaction (Newbie Question)

[R Losey]

When you say "bank card", are you talking about something like a debit
card, or a credit card?

Also, was this at one shop where you spent 7.24?

If it is a debit card (money comes directly from the bank account, in
contrast to a credit card, where charges accumulate, and you pay them off
monthly), I'd go to the bank account and enter the transaction:

date, name of shop, skip the category, enter the total as a credit, then
click "split" and enter milk in the first description, and then Groceries
for the account and 1.99 for the debit amount; on the next row (which
appears when I move the cursor off of that row), I enter whatever
description you want for the book, and the account for the book expense and
the 5.25 as the debit amount. When I press enter, I have a "split" entry in
the bank account.

As someone else said, I only see things vanish if I enter them using a
different account from where I spent the money.



On Sat, Dec 17, 2022 at 4:20 PM p.f.cuthbert at btinternet.com p.f.cuthbert---
via gnucash-user <gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:

>
> Hi
>
> Having today transferred all my data from Quicken to GNUCash I am just
> trying to understand how it works.  Entering single data items is easy,
> but the difficulty I have hit is with payments that require multiple
> debits (ie. a split payment)  The User Guides that I found today uses an
> income example that I did not find at all helpful despite several
> readings.
>
> So let us have an example:
>
> Payment by bank card (credit entry to Bank Account) of £7.24 comprising
> a book (debit £5.25 to Entertainment) and some milk (debit £1.99 to
> Groceries).
>
> The process in Quicken would be credit bank £7.24, then for the
> 'Category' choose Split and fill in the details tabbing down to the next
> line and choosing catergory and amount until the balance unallocated
> drops to zero.  Finally save transaction by pressing Return.
>
> The process in GNUCash seems to start the same.  Credit bank £7.24, then
> choose Split.  The yellow analysis lines come up, but for me the debit
> (Deposit) column comes up £16.74, which is the last Groceries posting.
> This is because I put the store name in as the descriptor for the
> transaction but the last one was not split. I put in the correct account
> Entertainment and then delete the £16.74 and enter £5.25. Next I tab
> down to the next line.  I enter some description like Milk, then select
> the Account Groceries, tab to the next column and enter £1.99.  At this
> point the total Credit of £7.24 is still in place.
>
> At this point things look good.  So what does one do next? Press Return
> seems like a safe bet.  However it is far from it.  All that happens is
> that the whole transaction disappears.  The alternative, using another
> Tab is almost as bad.  The £1.99 debit in Groceries is now replaced by a
> £5.25 credit and the £7.24 credit from the bank has disappeared.  Ok, it
> makes the books appear to balance since double entry is maintained but
> the whole process seem astonishingly random.
>
> If any kind reader can advise on the correct way yo handle this simple
> task I would be most grateful as I do simple domestic accounting but
> have lots of split debit analysis.
>
> Regards
>
> Pete
>
>
> Dr Peter Cuthbert
> Creuddyn
> Coedlan Y Plas
>
> Llangawsai
> Aberystwyth
> Ceredigion
> SY23 1HJ
> 01970 623 447
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-- 
_________________________________
Richard Losey
rlosey at gmail.com
Micah 6:8