Running Linux, 5th Edition - Matthias Kalle Dalheimer [152]
To enter a split transaction, follow these steps:
Open an account register. Split transactions are usually recorded at the logical source or destination. For a paycheck, it is common to record the transaction inside your checking account.
Enter the date and description as you would for any transaction.
Click the Split button on the Account Register's toolbar.
Press Tab to advance to the first subtransaction.
Enter each part of the transaction as you would a normal transaction. Here's the tricky part: Deposit and Withdrawal apply to the account you're transferring money to or from at the time. For our example transaction, you are withdrawing $500 from your Income:Paycheck account in the form of wages, and splitting that into several deposits in your Expenses and Assests:Current Assests:Checking Account. At first it may seem counterintuitive that taxes are a deposit in an account, but if you reread the earlier definition for an Expense account it should make sense. Use Figure 8-57 as a guide for filling out this transaction. When you finish with a subtransaction, press Tab to go to the next subtransaction. I find it convenient to perform transactions like this by making my first split the withdrawal from the Income account. This makes the balancing that GnuCash automatically performs on the splits that follow work better.
Press the Enter key to finish the split transaction. If the transaction is not balanced (money in does not equal money out), GnuCash warns you and offers several solutions. GnuCash realizes that you're not as good at math as the computer, so it displays the amount remaining on the last subtransaction line. Once everything balances correctly, the split transactions collapse into a single line.
To see an already recorded split, select that transaction with the mouse and click the Split button on the toolbar.
Figure 8-57. Example of a split transaction
The example in Figure 8-57 shows a good reason to create subaccounts under Expenses. If you create subaccounts called Federal, State, and Local, you can always see at a glance the amount you have paid so far in each respective category. This technique works just as well for categorizing other expenses and incomes.
Scheduling transactions
You probably pay certain bills every month at about the same time, and entering those transactions each time can become a chore. GnuCash's transaction scheduling feature allows you to create transactions that automatically recur at a certain interval. To schedule a transaction, follow these steps:
From the accounts window, select Actions → Scheduled Transactions → Scheduled Transaction Editor.
Click New.
Enter the name of the scheduled transaction (e.g., Electric Bill), the start date, frequency, and end date (if applicable).
There is a template transaction at the bottom of the window. This is where you tell GnuCash how much money to transfer at the specified intervals. Click in the Description field and create a transaction just like you would any other in your checking account. Remember, when you are paying a bill you are probably depositing money into an expense account and withdrawing money from your checking account. The template transaction needs to reflect both sides of the transaction. At the specified time interval, this transaction will occur in the accounts involved.
A quick way to make any transaction a scheduled transaction is by right-clicking on the transaction and selecting Schedule. If you are having trouble figuring out how to manually enter a template transaction, you can cheat by creating one this