>> On Apr 10, 2019, at 11:58 PM, ToddAndMargo via gnucash-user
<[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> On a credit Card account, they owe me $18.00 (I over paid).
>> What do I enter for opening balance? $18 or -$18?
>>
>> And do I put in Payment or Charge?
>>
>> When I enter a charge, why does "Transfer auto enter
>> "Orphan-USD"? What is "Orphan-USD" anyway?
>>
>> How do I tell the "transfer" column to bugger off and leave
>> me alone, unless I specifically want to transfer something.
>>
>> Is there a way to turn "Transfer" off?
>>
>> Many thanks,
>> -T
On 4/10/19 11:03 PM, Adrien Monteleone wrote:
If you enter negative numbers, it will flip to the other column. All numbers
should be entered as positive. You choose to either enter them as payments or
charges. (debits and credits respectively in formal terminology)
Payments (debits, left column) decrease the amount owed for a liability.
Charges (credits, right column) increase the amount owed for a liability.
Since they owe you, you want to enter that amount on the payment side.
The other account you want to use is Equity:Opening Balances (since you
indicated this is the opening balance for that account at the point you are
starting your books)
While ‘payment’ may sound strange to you, the math will work out.
Personally, I prefer formal accounting labels (debits/credits) as that is
easier to keep straight in my mind. I also view all registers in Transaction
Journal view and Double Line view. (Double Line view allows for a
transaction-wide note field) This allows me to see all debits and credits at
all times so I understand exactly what is happening with all transactions and
nothing is hidden. (you can always toggle this as desired in the view menu, or
set the preference globally) If you click the ’split’ button, you’ll see a
similar view for a single transaction. (Auto-Split shows all splits only for
the current transaction you are editing)
When you enter transactions, you aren’t entering them in only one account,
every transaction records money moving from one account to another. The current
register is one account, you have to specify the other. If you don’t, GnuCash
will use either the Orphan-USD or Imbalance-USD accounts. (USD is different for
each currency used) This is because all transactions must balance to net zero
between two accounts, equal debits and credits.
’Transfer’ is merely a reference to the amount and other account you are moving
the money to. (from the credit card, to somewhere else, likely an expense, as
payments are usually entered from your banking register.)
If you choose Transaction Journal view, the Transfer column will go away
because you don’t need it as you now see all debits and credits directly.
Regards,
Adrien
Thank you! I will have to read it over several times to get
it to sink in.
Every time I enter a charge I get another equal lien with
payment. This confuses the heck out of me as I make one
payment a month and have multiple charges that apply to it.
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