[ubuntu-uk] gnucash accounts

[Adam Funk]

On 2007-06-26, michaelweaver wrote:

> 	I do not know if I have got this right but having a look at the Gnucash
> concepts guide when creating accounts in Gnucash, I create for example
> an account called assets as a top level account but do not put in any
> details such as an account name or number and then add my actual
> accounts as parent accounts under the assets account which is then where
> I fill in my actual bank account names etc.
> Is this correct that my top level account does not need any actual
> information apart from a name like Assets and that I do not even need to
> select an account type in the list when creating the first account?

That's right.  You create a tree of accounts, with a few general ones
at the top, usually Assets, Liabilities, Income, Expenses and Equity.
(These are all just summaries of the lower nodes in the tree.)  The
usual practice is to subdividide them further, e.g.:

Assets
   |---Current
   |       |---Cheque account
   |       |---Savings account
   |       \---Cash
   \---Investments
           \---ISA

Income
   |---Salary
   |---Interest
   \---Other

and so on.


When you first use Gnucash, it should give you the opportunity the
start with a combination of several default templates of accounts.
Then you can rearrange them to suit your requirements.