[GNC] help in fixing unexplained behavior

[David Cousens]

Hi Keith,

It is preferrable to reach me though the mailing list. I don't mind,
but using the mailing list means any discussion is available to all the
list members and allows us all to learn from our own and mistakes
others make. The disadvantage can be sometimes conflicting advice from
various perspectives and having to sort out what is relevant.  I will
copy my reply to the list

Changing account names  is not likely to change functionality per se. 

>From your description it would appear that you have the register for
your VISA card open. 

A payment of your VISA card from your check account will appear in the
Decrease (Debit) column for that account in that register. If the
balance prior to the transaction is negative(red) though it should make
the balance more negative, i.e. a larger magnitude negative number. If
the balance is positive(black) then it should decrease its magnitude if
it remains positive and turn it negative if the transaction amount is
larger than the prior positive balance.

Are you using GnuCash's reconcile process to reconcile your accounts?
Why did you make a "balancing entry" on 11/4/25?  
Was that for a transaction which was on your statement but not in your
GnuCash data  or vice versa?

The preferred accounting correction would be to add the transaction if
it is missing from your books and has not been entered with an
incorrect date for example, and to investigate why the transaction
exists in your books if it was not present in the statement. 
Common problem can be to have assigned an incorrect transfer account
while making an entry at some point  or having entered an otherwise
correct transaction at an incorrect date. 
If that other account is also reconciled then it will not be in
agreement with its statement as well.

Adding "balancing entries" is a last resort in accounting practice, it
is far better to identify and enter the missing transactions or correct
any transactions which are in error. If you require a strict audit
trail then any correction is usually doen done as a new correcting
transaction rather than changing the original incorrect transaction and
is annotated to reflect which transaction it is correcting, why and
when.

GnuCash makes corrections during reconciliation this quite easy as it
is possible to edit the underlying register while running the Reconcile
dialogue and any changes. This can occur when a 2 digit year entry.
This can occur when a 2 digit year entry you make to the register are
automatically updated in the reconcile window as appropriate.

Finding incorrect transactions is an art form and there are a number of
tricks for finding certain error types (like the current discussion
about transposed numbers in an amount). A Google search will usually
turn up links to well known techniques. Wrong dates on entries also
causes problems

I would first examine your "balancing entries".  It is possible they
are duplicating entries which exist in your books  but are perhaps in
an earlier period because of a wrong date entry, commonly with the year
of the date. 
Hope this is of some help sorting your problem





On Tue, 2025-12-23 at 17:46 +0100, keith adams wrote:
> 12/23/2025 - Tue
> 
> Xubuntu 24.04 linux    
> Gnucash Version: 5.13
> Build ID: Flathub 5.13-1
> Finance::Quote: 1.67
> 
> Hello David:
> 
> For years GNC has worked perfectly for my Visa credit card. 
> 
> In an effort to resolve the problem below, I changed from
> "Liabilities > Credit Card > Visa" to "Liabilities > Visa" which is
> current account structure.  Issue remains.
> 
> Historically, payments from Checking account appear in Decrease
> column (3rd from right) column and Balance column (negative, in red)
> gets smaller.
> 
> Charges to Visa appear in the Increase column (2nd from right) and
> Balance column (negative, in red, 1st on right) gets larger
> (correctly, increases the negative amount).
> 
> On 11/04/25, however, I had to enter a Balancing entry (479.32) into
> the Decrease column (3rd from right)  The amount was exactly double
> the Closing Balance shown on my Statement. 
> 
> I checked multiple times and all statement amounts matched my GNC
> entries (date, amount, and charge, payment, cleared or not, and
> saved).  Closed GNC and re-opened with no change.  Since I was able
> to force-balance I decided to wait for the next statement to see if
> this was just a fluke.
> 
> On 12/04/25 I had to enter another Balancing entry (862.30) into the
> Decrease column (3rd from right).  Can't find any relation to any
> other amounts or entries this time. Again I checked the statement
> against GNC and everything matched perfectly.
> 
> Going forward from 12/04, however, all entries in Balance column (1st
> on right) are in black, (positive) and charges entered into the
> Increase column (2nd from right) decrease the Balance (1st on right,
> which,  now in black, positive, decreases the positive amount).
> 
> I considered re-installing Gnucash but don't want to lose access to
> my data (goes back years). I do regular backups with RSYNC of my
> entire machine to 2 external HDD's. (not with Gnucash *.CVS export).
> 
> I'm at a  loss as to what's going on here and would really appreciate
> your input.  I hope it's OK to contact you directly here. Your
> assistance with my previous "payment plan" problem (circa 7 Nov 2025)
> was so prompt, correct and understandable and I'm quite confused by
> the whole 'mailing list' system (I un-subscribed).
> 
> Thank you in advance!  And Happy Holidays!!
> 
> Keith
> 
> 
> On 7 Nov 2025 at 17:58, keith adams <kadams at mailfence.com> wrote:
> > Thanks for your helpful and prompt reply. I'll be trying the steps
> > you suggest as soon as I can. 
> > 
> > New topic: Forgive my ignorance, but I don't understand the
> > instructions at end of each email or how to comply: 
> > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
> > 
> > My only related choice is "Reply" which is what I'm doing here.
> > 
> > Along with your email, I got a bunch of other emails that are
> > clearly not related to my issue.  What should I do with them?
> > 
> > On 7 Nov 2025 at 14:56, David Cousens <davidcousens49 at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > > Keith,
> > > 
> > > Your payment plan would be best represented by a Liability
> > account
> > > "PaymentPlan" or similar.
> > > 
> > > For each service provider you could have an expense account for
> > the
> > > services provided by that provider as sub accounts of a Medical
> > > Expenses expense account. If you don't need to break down the
> > expenses
> > > by provider, then you could use a single "Medical Expenses"
> > expense
> > > account.
> > > 
> > > When you receive a service you increase the balance (debit) of
> > the
> > > relevantexpense account(s) and increase the balance (credit) the
> > > liability account.
> > > 
> > > WHen you make a payment to the plan you would decrease the
> > balance of
> > > your bank account (credit) and decrease the balance (debit) of
> > the
> > > liability account "Payment Plan".
> > > 
> > > Alternatively you could use the Business features of GnuCash and
> > create
> > > each provider as a vendor and have a single Medical Expenses
> > account.
> > > Here when you receive a service, you would raise an invoice. this
> > > automatically credits a Liability account "Accounts Receivable"
> > and you
> > > would specify the Medical Expenses account as the account to
> > debit.
> > > 
> > > Here when you make a payment, you would credit your Bank account
> > and
> > > debit the "Accounts Receivable". 
> > > 
> > > If you are only using the business features to record the
> > expenses
> > > incurred on the payment plan then the balance of the "Accounts
> > > Receivable" is what you owe the plan at any time.
> > > 
> > > With the reports for the BUsiness features you can use the vendor
> > > reports to breakdown what is owning to each vendor, but
> > presumably the
> > > purpose of the payment plan is that you do not have to bother
> > doing
> > > that as the Payment plan takes care of ensuring the vendors are
> > paid on
> > > time
> > > 
> > > Which approach is better depends on what you need the information
> > for
> > > and exactly what it is you need or want to know and what
> > information
> > > you need to record in your accounts to satisfy thatto satisfy
> > that
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > On Fri, 2025-11-07 at 13:27 +0100, keith adams via gnucash-user
> > wrote:
> > > > 11/07/2025 @ 0726 EST
> > > > Gnucash (Flathub v5.13). I have a payment plan set up with the
> > > > hospital that owns numerous providers. I record payments in my
> > > > Gnucash checking account. The balance in the plan changes when
> > I
> > > > receive services or make payments. After many hours I cannot
> > figure
> > > > out how to correctly show activity in the plan (with sub
> > accounts for
> > > > each provider/service so I can make itemized reports). Please
> > Help.
> > > > And Thank You!
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > gnucash-user mailing list
> > > > gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > > > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
> > > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> > > > -----
> > > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> > > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > gnucash-user mailing list
> > > gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
> > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> > > -----
> > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.

-- 
David Cousens