[GNC] Trial Balance Help

[Stan Brown]

On 2022-06-24 09:18, Jack Lockard wrote:
> How could I record a realized gain and only impact one side of the
> ledger? I don't think you can. Doesn't the imbalance have to be an
> improperly entered transaction?

If you're asking what I think you're asking, that's an impossibility --
not a feature missing from GnuCash, but impossible in terms of
double-entry bookkeeping even if you were doing it on paper.

In every transaction, total debits must always equal total credits. The
GnuCash software creates an "Imbalance" entry if you enter a transaction
where debits =/= credits.

And in the same way, in the totality of your accounts, total debits
(assets + expenses) must equal total credits (liabilities + equity +
income). That equation is also written in other ways, for instance
Assets =Liabilities + (Equity + Income - Expense), but all of them are
equivalent.

I think you were advised earlier in this thread to read the tutorial and
concepts manual, especially the part about double-entry bookkeeping.
Maybe another reading? Your question sounds like you may have read that
section but didn't really take it in.

> I think I'll just give up. It's my personal finances so I guess, at
> the end of the day, it doesn't matter if it is out of balance.
Of course you're free to do whatever you like with the software. But,
speaking as an old software programmer, I'm always nervous about
ignoring an error condition. The problem is, you can't be a little bit
pregnant.Once you start ignoring _some_ errors, you  ever know whether
an error message is showing you a new problem or just echoing the
pre-existing one.

My advice, for what it's worth, is to track down why you're getting an
imbalance, and fix it. Then you can enter new transactions, and if an
imbalance pops up you'll know instantly that it must have been from the
transaction you just entered, so you can easily fix it right away.

Stan Brown
Tehachapi, CA, USA
https://BrownMath.com