[GNC] credit account negative balance increases with payment

[Custom Shots]

I'm going to answer your questions one by one but for clarification, I've
been using GC for years. I always balance my accounts monthly. GC has
always performed flawlessly. Yes, I have made mistakes now and again and I
resolved them with adjusting transactions.

I don't remember when I opened the accounts. I balance accounts monthly so
this is new.

No, I did not err in opening the account. I charge things and pay the bill
entirely every month. It has always been accurate. Balancing a checkbook is
easy for me to do and that side of the transactions is correct. It is only
in this one credit card account that I"m having problems. A charge
increases the balance owed. A payment increases the balance owed. I don't
understand how that can happen.

My computer recently automatically upgraded the OS to Ubuntu 22.04.2 and
Linux kernel to 5.19.0-35. I may be grasping at straws here but could that
be the problem? I may have been working in GC at the time of the upgrade.

I would see a positive number in the payment in the column and then a
larger balance due, a negative number in the balance column.


On Mon, Mar 6, 2023 at 9:49 AM Stan Brown (using GC 2.6.19) <
stan+gnucash at fastmail.fm> wrote:

> Thanks for confirming that you selected Reverse Balance Accounts: Credit
> Accounts. That's the setting I use, so I can speak confidently about how
> GC works in our case.
>
> I'm assuming (I think we all are) that when you created the account and
> entered your opening balance, you owed money on the credit card or
> perhaps had a zero balance. Please confirm whether that's accurate.
>
> Someone asked if perhaps you initially made an error by entering the
> opening balance as a negative rather than a positive. Is that a
> possibility?
>
> Look at that account's register, scroll up to the top if necessary, and
> look at the very first entry. If you owed money on that credit card when
> you started with GC, the first entry should have a positive number in
> the Credit (middle) column of the three money columns, and the Balance
> (third) column should also be positive.
>
> If you see a positive balance in the Debit (first) money column and also
> in the Balance (third) column, something is very wrong and I can't
> advise you. I think that's pretty darned unlikely, and I'm mentioning it
> only for completeness.
>
> If you see a positive balance in the Debit (first) money column and
> negative balance in the third column, there's your problem. There are
> two ways to fix this.
>
> (option A) Delete the number from the Debit column and put (still as a
> positive) in the Credit column. That will of course put your books out
> of balance by double the amount, which you'll need to fix. If you don't
> see all the splits of the transaction, click Split in the menu at the
> top of the GC window, then figure out what the reversing entry should be
> and edit accordingly. Run a balance sheet to make sure everything is in
> balance now.
>
> (option B) The conservative practice would be to make an adjusting entry
> as of today. Assuming the opening balance was -123.45, the entry would be:
>     Description: Correct opening balance of _____ credit card, entered
> backward by mistake
>     Debit to Equity:main Equity account: 246.90 (double the opening
> balance)
>     Credit to Liabilities _____ credit card account 246.90
> The numbers will still be wrong from the start to yesterday, but there
> will be no question about what haoppened and how you fixed it.
>
> HOW TO CHOOSE: Some people don't like changing historical records, and I
> see their point because it can make changes harder to track. Also, with
> the old pen-and-ink bookkeeping, which GC generally emulates, prior
> entries couldn't be changed. If these books are just for your own use,
> tracking is less of an issue because I daresay after all this kerfuffle
> you'll remember what you did. But a real accountant would most liklely
> choose option B even so.
>
> Stan Brown
> Tehachapi, CA, USA
> https://BrownMath.com
>
> On 2023-03-06 08:09, Custom Shots wrote:
> > In GnuCash Preferences: Accounts: Reverse Balance Accounts: Credit
> Accounts
> > is selected. That shows amounts owed as negative numbers.
> > After adjusting settings as others have suggested, I have seen another
> > anomaly. This is happening with only one credit account. I have four
> credit
> > accounts. The other three are working properly. This one in question is
> the
> > only one that is incorrect. I am attaching a screenshot of the register
> as
> > it is after changing settings. Like this or with reverse balance accounts
> > credit selected the balance should go down after a payment. It doesn't it
> > goes up. Even with negative numbers, the negative balance owed goes up
> > meaning I owe more after a payment.
>