[GNC] credit account negative balance increases with payment

Mon Mar 6 12:43:42 EST 2023

>From reading the posts on this list, I still think this is a data entry
issue... It is correct that payments should lower the balance...

But are charges being entered correctly?

When you enter a credit card payment, it "has" to be correct, because you
know it takes money away from your bank account and is applied to the
credit card balance.

However, when you enter charges, they could be reversed; one entry is on
some "Expense" item, and the other is against the charges.

In other words, are your charges showing up in the same column as the
payments?  If so, then that's your answer.

I am not using formal accounting labels; I don't *think* I have the Reverse
Balance Accounts set (I can't find it, but I'm using the default).

As I add charges, my credit card balance increases, and is positive.
Payments are negative, and decrease the balance.

On Mon, Mar 6, 2023 at 11:20 AM Custom Shots <customshots at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.
> >
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-- 
_________________________________
Richard Losey
rlosey at gmail.com
Micah 6:8