As others have mentioned, you should read up on the rules of double entry bookkeeping. If GnuCash cannot identify the proper account, it puts it in the account call "Unbalanced" - this account should BTW always be ZERO!!!! Anything in "unbalanced" is a mistake somewhere.
A little closer to reality is that anything LEFT in Unbalanced/Imbalance is a mistake. But there only temporarily might be OK if :working on it".
For example, when entering a transaction you might realize that one component might more properly be an account not yet in your CoA. And while you could maybe deal with that "on the fly" I often find that IF that new account existed, OTHER (earlier) transactions should have referenced it.
For example, imagine an expense account X. It has been used as the debit account for a number of transaction all of which would be thought related to "x". But now I am entering a transaction where there is enough difference that it seems advisable to create a new account Y. But if the "y" category exists, some of the transactions now posted to X really should be in Y because more "y" lie than "x" like. So........ I'd allow the transaction I was entering to complete leaving the amount in Imbalance and finish the work of entering that stack of transactions. When done, I'd do what was needed to clear up anything left in Imbalance. Create the new account Y, possibly a placeholder parent for X and Y (if they weren't related in some way, wouldn't have had this problem). go through X to find all transactions that should really be in Y and do that, and then deal with the one in Imbalance << done last, because as long as there know "not done yet">>
IF you are in business ...... It is common or at least possible that a payment comes in that you are unsure about (what customer, what invoice, etc.). Good practice is not to sit on that check, deposit with the rest but the other side in an account with the name "Suspense". Again, anything left in there means something to be dealt with. In businesses of any size, might be a different worker bee who specializes in solving the mysteries << might require some days elapsed time, emailing or calling customers, etc. >> So just like Imbalance, anything remaining in "Suspense" means something needing work.
Michael D Novack _______________________________________________ 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.
