Brian, The entry recording your opening balaces will have debit amounts to your asset accounts and equal credit amounts to the Equity:Opening Balance accounts. For Liability accounts the entry will be credit amounts with corresponding debit amounts to the Equity:Opening Balances.
This is how double antry accounting works, each transaction consists of at least one debit and one credit entry (there can be more) where the sum of the debit and credit entries are equal. If you set the preferences (Edit->Preferences->Account_>Use Formal Accounting Labels checked) and in the Register defaults check Auto- split Register, when you select a transaction it will open with two or more lines. AT least one line usually the first will affect the register you are working in and subsequent entries will affect other accounts. Your opening transaction for the amount of your check account will appear as follows in the Account and Debit and Entry columns of the register: Account Debit Credit Asset: Cheque Account 3892.25 Equity: Opening Balance 3892.25 with similar entries for all your other assest accounts and entries with reversed debit and creits for the liability accounts. If this does not make sense then you will need to read a bit more on the basics of double entry accounting. There is a brief summary int the GnuCash Tutorial and Concepts Guide (https://code.gnucash.org/docs/C/gnucash-guide/chapter_basics.html) . David Cousens On Sat, 2024-05-04 at 13:18 -0400, Brian Higgins via gnucash-user wrote: > I really need to talk with someone to get this right. My equity > opening > balance is $ 6802.59 ( close enough) on 1/1 24, and my check > register > is $3892.258 on 1/1/24 and my petty cash is $5 on 1/1 /24, so why > does > my equity account value on show up as equal to the assets? I thought > the equity account would show as the balance of all owners investment > in > the business, and as a liability, and thus a negative number. Would > a > bookkeeper or accountant who may not be familiar with Gnucash be able > to > help me figure this out? > Note: I have returned the Equity parent account to placeholder, and I > see there is an Opening Balance Equity as a child account of that. So > really, is my opening balance equity just the total of my assets on > 1/1/24, or is it a register snapshot of a capital account, as of Jan > 1st, meaning all the $ I have shoveled into this turkey since day > one, > starting back in 2021? I feel I should enter $ 6802.59, and I think > that goes on the credit side, ( an increase in GnuCash)) since it is > a > 'special liability', where the bank account was debited that amount, > over time, in 2021. I am starting these books fresh as of Jan 1 2024. > Thank you, I just need some hands on help getting me started. > > > Brian > _______________________________________________ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > 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. _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org 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.
