Splitting a transaction difficulty

Question

I'm using Gnucash to keep track of my personal finances and am new to the program. I've been trying to learn how to split a transaction and it simply isn't working. Here's what I've done so far:

1. I enter the transaction and amount without splitting. Then press Enter.
2. I highlight the transaction and press the "Split" button on top of the page. This expands the transaction showing multiple lines below it.
3. Using the first expanded line I enter the first split description, tab, choose the appropriate account, tab, enter the split amount, then tab to the next description line. I repeat the process until all the splits are entered.
4. Press Enter.

And then my transaction completely disappears.

Needless to say, I'm very frustrated and really need some help.

Thanks.

Answer 1

It sounds like you are overwriting the part of the split that came out of the current account so when you hit enter to save the transaction it disappears from the current register.

Here is how I enter a split for a $50 item that I paid for with $10 in cash back certificates and $40 on a credit card.

1. Create the transaction in the credit card register for the full amount ($50).
2. Hit split.
3. Reduce the amount of the split for the credit card to the proper amount ($40).
4. Hit the down arrow to move to the blank split line, this should automatically put the imbalance amount ($10) on that line.
5. Enter the correct account for the imbalance and press enter if done entering splits or enter a new amount and hit the down arrow again to create another split.

In the end you should end up with something like this where US Bank Cash Plus Card is the current account. If you want a transaction to appear in a register even though it didn't credit/debit that account you can accomplish this by adding a split for that account with the value blank.