Michael wrote 

" automatically-generated entries for Imbalance-USD would be placed in my 
existing Imbalance-USD account, which is located under Special Accounts. "

First, thank you to the developers of GnuCash.  I started using it a couple of 
months ago to replace Quicken because it drove me nuts with its constant 
nagging to update to a new version, and because I could not get the Quicken 
version I owned to work on my Windows 10 computers. It still works on my Win 7 
computer, but that's it.   I've been very happy with GnuCash - you all have 
done a very nice job.  I also use QuickBooks for my business accounting and may 
end up switching those over to GnuCash at some point.

As I've been reading the discussion about the imbalance account, it occurred to 
me to ask why GnuCash allows entries that are out of balance?  In theory and 
practice, we should not have entries that don't balance...credits should equal 
debits...and if they don't, we have an error in the entry.  And not that I 
would say QuickBooks is a work of art, but it doesn't allow one to make an 
entry that doesn't balance.  In other words, it forces the user to at least 
consciously assign an imbalance to an account (either an already existing one 
or a new one.  This allows one to fudge the entry if one doesn't know the 
answer in that moment and then go find out the answer and fix the entry later). 
 But, the user is "on notice" that there was a problem with the entry.

As the discussion about the Imbalance account highlights, GnuCash does allow an 
out of balance entry.  This automatic action may easily be missed if one 
doesn't quickly the develop the habit of checking the Imbalance account.  

I'm simply curious, why doesn't GnuCash prevent these entries to begin with?

Thank you for your time to answer in advance, Laura
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