[GNC] Newbie: Gnucash credit card payment transactions don't make sense

[Deborah Robson]

Thanks, John.

I read all the basics in the Tutorial, and Concept Guide MULTIPLE times and missed that distinction. When the problem occurred, I knew I had to be missing something fundamental, and indeed, I was. 

I’ve gone back over the manual (I’m primarily using the PDF version on an iPad, while the program is open on my laptop). The information that sub-accounts also have specific sub-types exists, but it is essentially buried in the first full paragraph on p. 52 of the English Concepts guide, and although there are screenshots galore and a couple of versions of the way the 5 basic types relate to each other, I find no screenshots nor a diagram of this key information about sub-types. In multiple places the names of the 5 parent types are capitalized, but with few instances (p. 52 is an exception), the sub-types are not given any “alert! pay attention!” treatment. The distinction is pretty subtle in the “putting it all together” exercises, which I also went through. So yeah, I missed that key point!

I did change the account types; when I did so, all the entries in both the bank and the CC account ended up in one column (of each account, of course) and I’ve manually shifted the entries as needed—I hope the program is robust enough to tolerate this messing around and I won’t have to start over with a clean file and re-entering all the data. I’m coming from a few decades of QuickBooks, which, bizarrely, can’t export QIF files, and the CSV export/import option looks like it’s about as much work as re-entering.

I’d actually—and apparently successfully—reconciled the year-so-far of most of the accounts before I discovered the problem. I did, of course, unreconcile everything in the course of tracking down the issue. 

Trying again.

Deb


> On May 24, 2025, at 16:03, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On May 24, 2025, at 14:32, Deborah Robson <robson.deborah at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> What am I doing wrong? ? ? ? ?
> 
> It looks like you made the CC account type ASSET  instead of CREDIT CARD or LIABILITY. When not using formal labels the register for an ASSET account uses Increase for the left (debit) column and Decrease for the right (Credit) column; the register for a LIABILITY account reverses them so that Invrease is on the left and Decrease is on the right. 
> 
> Consider using account type BANK for your checking account: That will change the labels to Deposit and Withdrawal. Similarly using type CREDIT CARD for the CC account will make the labels Payment and Charge.
> 
> Next, read the Accounting Basics chapter of the Tutorial and Concept Guide (get it from the Help menu or visit https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v5/C/gnucash-guide/basics-accounting1.html) to learn why the left and right columns have to sum up to the same value.
> 
> Regards,
> John Ralls
>