Todd, The conceptual bit behind double entry bookkeeping is that when you charge something to your credit card you: 1. Increase the balance of your credit card (a credit entry); and at the same time 2. Increase the balance of an expense account ( a debit entry).
Similarly when you pay your credit card you: 1 Decrease the balance in your bank account (a credit entryand at the same time 1 Decrease the balance of your credit card account (a debit entry). Many single entry account systems often hide one of these steps from you and make assumptions about where the second entry takes place. The process is similar for other transactions as well. Two or more accounts (e.g with Sales tax) are affected by each transaction, hence the two lines (known as splits in GnuCash) that appear when an entry in an account register is opened to reveal the splits. In the above the brackets identify the colums the amount will appear in when using the formal accounting labels. Each transaction must have at least one debit and one credit component (it may have more than one of each) and the sum of the debit entries must equal the sum of the credit entries. As Adrien suggested, reading the introductory material will introduce you to the jargon used and provide the necessary background to effectively use GnuCash. David Cousens ----- David Cousens -- Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
