[GNC] question

[Derek Atkins]

Michael,

On Fri, May 13, 2022 8:50 am, Michael or Penny Novack wrote:
>> First, I highly recommend you read the GnuCash documentation.  The
>> Tutorial and Guide are very useful in explaining the concepts, and the
>> Help is useful at explaining what the buttons do.
>>
>> Having said that, there are two ways to enter a transaction like a
>> Check.
>> The first is to open the Transfer Dialog (Ctrl-T) and enter the date,
>> amount, source (e.g. Assets:Checking) and destination (e.g.
>> Expenses:Rent).
>> The second is to open the account register of the checking account and
>> from there you can create a transaction for the expense.
>
> OR, in the second case, you could open the account for the expense and
> do it there. With gnucash, entering a transaction affecting just two
> accounts you can do it form the ledger account of either. But please
> note IF AN EXPENSE. When you write a check, this will be a credit to the
> checking account. The debit side of the transaction will usually be an
> account under expense BUT NOT NECESSARILY SO. For some examples:

Considering the OP said "doesn't know accounting", I chose not to
introduce this because in the majority of cases it will just confuse the
user and they will enter the transaction incorrectly.  Also, most humans
intuitively understand transactions from an Asset or Liability, but have a
much harder time "originating" a transaction from an Income or Expense
account.

Yes, a user CAN enter a transaction from any account, but IMNSHO a newbie
user should be encouraged to enter them from an Asset or Liability account
to reduce the chance of errors and confusion.

Thanks,

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-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant