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Corrected a misleading example in the manual

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John Wiegley 2010-06-09 04:56:57 -04:00
parent 158b9c92fd
commit 474d95adeb
1 changed files with 5 additions and 27 deletions
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doc/ledger.texi
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@ -122,27 +122,13 @@ general ledger you need to record a payment to Pacific Bell for your
monthly phone bill. The cost is $23.00, let's say, and you want to
pay it from your checking account. In the general ledger you need to
say where the money came from, in addition to where it's going to.
The transaction might look like this:
Such a transaction might look like this:
@smallexample
9/29 BAL Pacific Bell $-200.00 $-200.00
Equity:Opening Balances $200.00
9/29 BAL Checking $100.00 $100.00
Equity:Opening Balances $-100.00
9/29 100 Pacific Bell $23.00 $223.00
Checking $-23.00 $77.00
9/29 Pacific Bell $23.00 $23.00
Checking $-23.00 0
@end smallexample
The first line shows a payment to Pacific Bell for $23.00. Because
there is no ``balance'' in a general ledger---it's always zero---we
write in the total balance of all payments to ``Pacific Bell'', which
now is $223.00 (previously the balance was $200.00). This is done by
looking at the last transaction for ``Pacific Bell'' in the ledger, adding
$23.00 to that amount, and writing the total in the balance column.
And the money came from ``Checking''---a withdrawal of $23.00---which
leaves the ending balance in ``Checking'' at $77.00. This is a very
manual procedure; but that's where computers come in...
The posting must balance to $0: $23 went to Pacific Bell, $23 came
from Checking. There is nothing left over to be accounted for, since
the money has simply moved from one account to another. This is the
@ -174,16 +160,8 @@ formatting as the ledger program wishes to see them:
@smallexample
2004/09/29 Pacific Bell
Payable:Pacific Bell $-200.00
Equity:Opening Balances
2004/09/29 Checking
Accounts:Checking $100.00
Equity:Opening Balances
2004/09/29 Pacific Bell
Payable:Pacific Bell $23.00
Accounts:Checking
Expenses:Pacific Bell $23.00
Assets:Checking
@end smallexample
The account balances and registers in this file, if saved as