> On Mon, 15 May 2000, Dave Peticolas wrote:
>
> > > To my understanding, that's only true if you're using a double-entry
> > > ledger system. The statements I get from my bank, and from every credit
> > > card I've ever had use a debit to mean a charge...money going out of the
> > > account, and a credit for money flowing into an account. Thus the
> > > terminology "deposits and other credits", and "checks and other debits".
> > > I'm not an accountant, but I expect that the terms are still backwards.
> >
> > Surprise, you are using a double-entry ledger system :) That is, unless
> > you are leaving all of your 'transfer from' fields blanks, all of your
> > entries in checking account have a matching entry in an expense, income,
> > etc. account.
> >
> > I suppose we could make the meaning of 'debit' and 'credit' configurable.
> > It's really unfortunate that the informal meanings of the terms are exactly
> > opposite the accouting meanings.
> >
> > dave
>
> I'm not using gnucash's double-entry features. Perhaps that'd be the best
> solution---if using single-entry, use the informal meanings of
> credit/debit, and if you're doing double entry, use the formal ones. Or
> just punt and call the columns "funds in" and "funds out" ;)
I think the latter option is probably best, since making it possible
to reverse the meanings could end up being very confusing. Right now,
as long as you don't have 'always use debit/credit' labels in the
register, you only see debit/credit in:
+ asset, liability, and equity accounts
+ reconcile window
+ a few reports, though I just noticed their use of debit/credit
needs to be fixed.
Most people not using double-entry are unlikely to use the
asset, etc. account types.
How about, as a first step, we make the reconcile window be
configurable to use, e.g., 'Funds In' and 'Funds Out' instead
of debit/credit as you suggest?
dave
