[GNC] Split Transaction in One Account results in Multiple Transactions in the Other Account

[Ed Greenberg]

Everybody has been posting that GC is not built to handle multiple splits
into the same account. This makes sense and is true.

In your example, you want to account for groceries by type:  For example,
milk, eggs, meat.

If this is necessary, perhaps you could use sub-accounts.
Expense:Grocery:Milk
Expense:Grocery:Eggs
Expense:Grocery:Meat

and so on.

These would all accumulate under Expense:Grocery.

Of course, this requires that each register tape needs to be broken down
when entered.

Best,

Ed Greenberg

On Sat, Aug 23, 2025 at 8:28 PM Tom Route-36 <tom.route36 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm still new and learning my way around GnuCash; but I'm noticing an
> annoying behavior.  When I record a transaction I put a LOT of detail
> into the recording of that transaction.  For example, let's say I bought
> a large quantity of groceries at a particular grocery store and charged
> it to a credit card.  For the example here, let's say it was 17 grocery
> items on a single credit card transaction, and the total charge came to
> $136.00.
>
> When I record this $136.00 transaction in GnuCash, the credit card
> account will have a single transaction consisting of 17 splits, where
> each split documents the description (in each Memo field) and the cost
> of each of those 17 items.  And all 17 split items get recorded into my
> Expenses:Groceries account.
>
> In the credit card account all looks normal the way I expect it to be.
> It's a single transaction with 17 SPLITS, each split going to the
> Expenses:Groceries account.  But when I jump to the Expenses:Groceries
> account, there I see 17 SEPARATE INDIVIDUAL TRANSACTIONS -- all with the
> same date, and all with the identical set of 17 splits.  The only thing
> different among these 17 separate transactions is that the Expense
> column amount of each transaction shows the amount of each individual
> split line entry.  That is not at all what I expect.
>
> What I would expect to see in the Expenses:Groceries account is also a
> SINGLE transaction, just like I entered in the credit card account.  And
> I would expect that that single transaction would have 17 splits in it
> documenting each of the 17 grocery items and amounts the same as it
> appears in my credit card account.  Why is that not happening?  And is
> there some setting or option in GnuCash to change that behavior?
>
> Tom
>
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