On 2021-10-16 08:22, Tom Browder wrote: > My bank's checkbook register has the "withdrawal" and "deposit" columns in > the reverse order of that shown in Gnucash. Is there any way to reverse > them in Gnucash for ease of use?
I'm sticking my neck out here, but I believe the answer is "no". * A deposit is a debit entry to your checking account because it increases the value of that asset, and a debit -- which is an increase of assets or expenses but a decrease of liabilities, equity, or income -- always goes on the left. * Contrariwise, a withdrawal is a credit entry to your checking account because it decreases the value of that asset, and a credits -- which is a decrease of assets or expenses but an increase of the other account types -- always go on the right. (A bookkeeping text that I read many years ago said that "debit" and "credit" were just accountants' words for "left" and "right", and that when accountants talk about balancing books they mean that the totals on the left and right must be equal.) >From your bank's point of view, the register is correct because _your_ withdrawal decreases their obligation (liability) to you and is therefore a debit on their books, while _your_ deposit increases their obligation and is therefore a credit on their books. The bank's own accounting entries are thus exactly opposite to yours. My suggestion is to relabel the columns in your checkbook register. However ... do you actually need a paper checkbook register? Isn't that just duplicating your checking account records in GnuCash? -- Stan Brown Tehachapi, CA, USA https://BrownMath.com https://OakRoadSystems.com _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org 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.
