Thanks for the advice.
What's confusing me is that I was not forgetting to add any transactions
in the split. GNUCash kept doubling the amount of the total and
subtracting all my split transactions from that doubled total it
invented and adding the difference to the Unbalanced-USD. I eventually
figured out how to do it after much trial and error. Then when I got to
this refund and tried to enter the splits it started doubling the total
of the transaction again. I still don't understand why it does that.
The software I was using before handled the split transactions by adding
each split to it's own account like GNUCash but the method of entry was
more intuitive. You enter split 1 with it's associated account, then
split 2 with it's associated account, then split 3 with it's associated
account, hit enter and you have your total. With GNUCash I have to first
enter the total amount then enter split 1 with it's associated account,
then split 2 with it's associated account, then split 3 with it's
associated account, close the split then hit enter. If I get one thing
wrong it will invent an extra amount and add that to the Unbalanced-USD
account. When that happens I delete the thing and start over.
Most of my transactions are split transactions because I even when
purchase only one item there is also the sales tax which is it's own
split transaction.
On 3/30/21 5:35 PM, Michael or Penny Novack wrote:
On 3/30/2021 4:06 PM, Jack Frillman via gnucash-user wrote:
I tried adding the minus sign and I still got the Unbalanced-USD
thing but that doesn't I was doing it correctly.
Entering these split transactions had been the biggest issue I have
encountered switching to GNUCash.
Amounts ending up in the (special) Imbalance account mean you
accidentally forgot to specify an account. Gnucash let you enter the
transaction (instead of stopping you because not in balance). There
are pros and cons about that. While gnucash will allow you to create
an account on the fly (the reason you didn't specify an account might
be that the proper account for this does not yet exist) I kind of like
what gnucash does here. Often when I see the need fore that new
account I realize that it's not going to be simply adding a new
account but now dividing an existing one or something similar, a lot
more work that I don;t want to do in the middle of dealing with a
stack of transactions.
Splits --- this isn't a gnucash thing per se. In standard double entry
bookkeeping there will always be at least two accounts involved with a
transaction but there could be a lot more. This is one case where what
gnucash does in having you enter transactions directly into one of the
affected accounts (virtual journal) can get trickier than the other
way around, enter into the journal and automatic post. But again,
since MOST transactions are not splits (most affect only two
accounts), this was a sensible choice the developers made. What you do
most of the time should be quick/easy.
Which means you will need to learn how to do splits. I suggest you
begin JUST with one sided splits (there is one debit, the credit side
is split or one credit, the debit side is split. For these you begin
entering the transaction in the account on the side that is not split.
Only when you have gotten good at this attempt a two sided split.
PRACTICE -- remember that gnucash can maintain several sets of books
for you. While a beginner with gnucash, or later when learning a new
feature (when you are a beginner, it's all new) you can have a set of
books named "test". This should be a fairly simple set of books, not a
great many accounts or transactions in each account. Just enough for
you to try things out. Like practicing entering split transactions. I
will give you one hint for two way splits. LIE! It is a useful trick
by entering a WRONG AMOUNT when starting the transaction. If you enter
an amount a little too large, when you enter split mode, you can
change that to the correct value and it will still leave you with an
amount on that side of the transaction. For example, you can now
change that amount to what will be correct for the other account on
that side. I'll stop there, since if you have gotten this far you'll
be able to figure out for yourself what to do if more accounts on that
side.
Michael D Novack
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