I understand you.

The problem here is that Beancount does not use traditional double-entry terms 
like "credit" and "debit" for different types of accounts. It uses signs. It 
uses this modified account equation:

(Income + Liabilities) + (Assets + Expenses) + Equity = 0

So, in most cases, Income and Liabilities are negative, while Assets and 
Expenses are positive.

I have been using Beancount for more than 3 years, so I am already attuned to 
its usage of negative and positive signs. But your post reminds me that if a 
user has used tranditonal double-booking method before, they may feel confused 
facing the Income Statement in Beancount.

Perhaps Fava could provide a fava-option that flips the signs to generate a 
"traditional" Income Statement and Balance Sheet?

-- 
Zhuoyun Wei

On Thu, May 9, 2019, at 02:44, John Mee wrote:
> 
> Perhaps this is an issue of fava, I'm sure you'll redirect me if so... 
> my problem is that fava's balance sheet shows assets as positive values 
> and equity as negative (which is also odd, imho both sides should be 
> positive values?) thence the income Statement shows income as negative 
> and expenses as positives.
> 
> I started mucking around with code to try and flip all my beancount 
> text file entries from positives to negatives but, given that is "work, 
> (eg: got so far as to be searching for routine in beancount.data that 
> outputs Transaction instance as beancount text?), that now I'm 
> reconsidering my approach. Even if I do flip it all successfully my 
> balance sheet will show assets as negatives, equity as positives, 
> income as positive and expenses as negative: better but still not 
> "right" imho (please correct me as appropriate).
> 
> Ultimately I (think I) would like fava's income statement to list 
> income in positive values; expenses can be either positive or negative 
> I don't particularly care, but it would be nice if both sides of the 
> balance sheet were positive although I can live with whatever I get on 
> that. 
> 
> (First) Question is perhaps: Should I proceed to invert every entry in 
> beancount, or focus on "fixing" fava?
> 
> thanks.
> 
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