I'm going to answer your questions one by one but for clarification, I've been using GC for years. I always balance my accounts monthly. GC has always performed flawlessly. Yes, I have made mistakes now and again and I resolved them with adjusting transactions.
I don't remember when I opened the accounts. I balance accounts monthly so this is new. No, I did not err in opening the account. I charge things and pay the bill entirely every month. It has always been accurate. Balancing a checkbook is easy for me to do and that side of the transactions is correct. It is only in this one credit card account that I"m having problems. A charge increases the balance owed. A payment increases the balance owed. I don't understand how that can happen. My computer recently automatically upgraded the OS to Ubuntu 22.04.2 and Linux kernel to 5.19.0-35. I may be grasping at straws here but could that be the problem? I may have been working in GC at the time of the upgrade. I would see a positive number in the payment in the column and then a larger balance due, a negative number in the balance column. On Mon, Mar 6, 2023 at 9:49 AM Stan Brown (using GC 2.6.19) < [email protected]> wrote: > Thanks for confirming that you selected Reverse Balance Accounts: Credit > Accounts. That's the setting I use, so I can speak confidently about how > GC works in our case. > > I'm assuming (I think we all are) that when you created the account and > entered your opening balance, you owed money on the credit card or > perhaps had a zero balance. Please confirm whether that's accurate. > > Someone asked if perhaps you initially made an error by entering the > opening balance as a negative rather than a positive. Is that a > possibility? > > Look at that account's register, scroll up to the top if necessary, and > look at the very first entry. If you owed money on that credit card when > you started with GC, the first entry should have a positive number in > the Credit (middle) column of the three money columns, and the Balance > (third) column should also be positive. > > If you see a positive balance in the Debit (first) money column and also > in the Balance (third) column, something is very wrong and I can't > advise you. I think that's pretty darned unlikely, and I'm mentioning it > only for completeness. > > If you see a positive balance in the Debit (first) money column and > negative balance in the third column, there's your problem. There are > two ways to fix this. > > (option A) Delete the number from the Debit column and put (still as a > positive) in the Credit column. That will of course put your books out > of balance by double the amount, which you'll need to fix. If you don't > see all the splits of the transaction, click Split in the menu at the > top of the GC window, then figure out what the reversing entry should be > and edit accordingly. Run a balance sheet to make sure everything is in > balance now. > > (option B) The conservative practice would be to make an adjusting entry > as of today. Assuming the opening balance was -123.45, the entry would be: > Description: Correct opening balance of _____ credit card, entered > backward by mistake > Debit to Equity:main Equity account: 246.90 (double the opening > balance) > Credit to Liabilities _____ credit card account 246.90 > The numbers will still be wrong from the start to yesterday, but there > will be no question about what haoppened and how you fixed it. > > HOW TO CHOOSE: Some people don't like changing historical records, and I > see their point because it can make changes harder to track. Also, with > the old pen-and-ink bookkeeping, which GC generally emulates, prior > entries couldn't be changed. If these books are just for your own use, > tracking is less of an issue because I daresay after all this kerfuffle > you'll remember what you did. But a real accountant would most liklely > choose option B even so. > > Stan Brown > Tehachapi, CA, USA > https://BrownMath.com > > On 2023-03-06 08:09, Custom Shots wrote: > > In GnuCash Preferences: Accounts: Reverse Balance Accounts: Credit > Accounts > > is selected. That shows amounts owed as negative numbers. > > After adjusting settings as others have suggested, I have seen another > > anomaly. This is happening with only one credit account. I have four > credit > > accounts. The other three are working properly. This one in question is > the > > only one that is incorrect. I am attaching a screenshot of the register > as > > it is after changing settings. Like this or with reverse balance accounts > > credit selected the balance should go down after a payment. It doesn't it > > goes up. Even with negative numbers, the negative balance owed goes up > > meaning I owe more after a payment. > _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
