Test Driving Linux

Transactions

If the account is the heart of GnuCash, transactions are the blood. Without transactions, you simply have a bunch of accounts listed in a window. This isn't terribly useful—you want to do something with all these accounts. Recording transactions is exactly what makes GnuCash useful.

A transaction in GnuCash is a record of a specific event. This event is usually money being transferred from one place to another, but it could also be the equivalent value in stocks, bonds, or real estate. For a concrete example of a transaction, look no further than your own checkbook. If you keep a register, the individual entries in that register are records of transactions. When you use GnuCash, you simply record those transactions in the computer instead of in your checkbook. (Of course, a prudent person would do both.)

Entering Transactions

To enter transactions, you must open an account's register window, shown in Figure 10-7.

Figure 10-7. The account register window

You can access the register window for any account by double-clicking on the account in the accounts window. Let's start by recording a simple income transaction. Say you just mowed the lawn for Aunt Mary and she paid you $25 for your troubles. Here's how to record the transaction in GnuCash:

1. Expand your Assets account, followed by the Current Assets account, and then double-click on Checking Account to bring up the register. ...