Money Entry Tip

When you enter money amounts you may enter either a positive number (no sign) or a negative number (a minus sign in the first position). When entering money into an account the balance of the account is either increased or decreased. Some account balances are decreased when you enter a negative amount and others are decreased when you enter a positive amount. The opposite is also true. Whether the amount is increased or decreased with a negative or positive number depends on the type of the account. For those who understand bookkeeping you will recognize that this depends on whether the account is an asset, liability, capital, income, or expense account.

If you do not understand double entry bookkeeping or, you are not sure whether a money amount entered into an account should be entered as a positive or negative number you only need to know if the total balance of that account is to be increased or decreased. BasicBooks General Ledger provides a helping hand to make this choice easier for you. When making an Adjusting Entry if you double click on the amount field (after entering a valid account number) the Money Entry Tip window (see below) will pop up telling you what kind of entry to make to either increase or decrease the account balance.

Note that the tip for using a positive or negative amount number is based on the account type for that account number. Therefore, you must enter the account number before you can get a tip for the account. (In this example if you want to increase the balance of Account Number 560 you would enter a positive amount. To decrease the account's balance enter a negative amount.)

Figure: Money Entry Help Prompt