[GNC] WHY ARE THERE "IMBALANCE ENTRIES" AT ALL ?? JUST CURIOUS

[Glenn Fowler]

My opinion is that the imbalance *IS* the error and it allows you to easily
see and correct which transactions need to be moved. I think this is
preferred instead of a hard error or not allowing a transaction to be
entered.

On Tue, Jun 1, 2021 at 10:04 AM <menace at fastmail.fm> wrote:

> 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
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see
> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information.
> -----
> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>