I do know the difference between credit and a debt.
Doesn't everyone track their sales tax as a separate expense item? Why
would you consider sales tax the same type of an expenditure as
groceries, gasoline or your electric bill?
When I say a split 1 and split 2 I'm referring to each separate item in
a split transaction
I buy a pair of socks for $5 and a hammer for $10 and sales tax of $0.24
for a total $15.24.
There's a split transaction that comprises of three items:
Socks $5.00 makes an enter into the clothing account <----- that's
what I call split 1
Hammer $10.00 makes an entry into the tools account <------ that's what
I call split 2
Sales tax $0.24 makes an entry into the state sales tax account <-----
that's what I call split 3
Maybe that's not the correct accounting term but then again I'm not an
accountant. I'm just trying to track where I spend my money.
On 3/30/21 9:47 PM, Michael or Penny Novack wrote:
I'm going to break into bits as there are several things here
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.
1) It really would help if you knew what a journal entry looked like
when bookkeeping was done pen and ink on paper. Because that is the
"view" you are in, what the transaction entry would look like in the
journal.
2) It would help if you knew debit from credit. Here the user friendly
labels might not be your friend because they are account sensitive
(change with account type) but when you are entering a split, just
left/right debit/credit What is causing the behavior you find
mysterious (what you see as doubling is because you still see the line
you originally entered before you hit "split". THAT line is now (also)
appearing in the "journal view" of the transaction that hitting
"split" has opened for you.
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.
Practice splits. I am not QUITE sure what you mean by "split1",
"split2" etc. You are presumably entering ONE split transaction,
meaning a transaction that has more than just one debit and one
credit. Essentially gnucash is providing a short cut method of
entering transactions where only one of each. The "journal view" entry
of a transaction is how ALL transactions used to be entered in the
days before computer assisted accounting.
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.
Fair enough, but that's not a gnucash matter. I assume there is a good
reason for you to be tracking sales tax expense separately from the
ordinary expense of whatever was purchased. But again, use of the term
"split". Say I write a check for $105 to buy a widget costing $100 and
there was $5 sales tax on this purchase. That is ONE transaction,
credit checking $105, debit widgets $100 and sales tax $5 Because
more than one debit and one credit, can't use shortcut entry method
but have to use "split" mode, or as I said "journal entry mode".
There are three LINES to this entry (one credit line and two debit
lines) to this "split" transaction. The only reason you don't see two
lines when entering a transaction that has exactly one debit and one
credit is that you can use the shortcut method instead of "journal
view" << but you COULD ask gnucash to show you all transactions
"journal view" --- go to some account. Look on the toolbar, "file"
......"View"....... and click on view to see your view options. TRY
"journal view". Does what you see when you enter a "split" make any
more sense
Michael D Novack
* PS -- that is with a ONE SIDED split and starting with the largest
amount. If the transaction is split on both sides, more than one debt
and more than one credit the amount for no account is going to be the
"total" << although starting by "lying", starting with the total as
the amount for the account you begin with and changing it later is one
useful trick >>
_______________________________________________
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.
--
Old Unix programmers never die, they just mv to /dev/null
- Anonymous
_______________________________________________
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.
