Splasm Software Discussions

Been using Credit card accounts for years and put up with its ups and downs. Every few months or so suddenly the balance column goes bonkers. What I mean is this: for no reason it suddenly subtracts my CC charges and adds my CC payments. Also the colors change with it sometimes. Credits been running in RED and Charges in Black. Naturally my Reconciliation never balances. However, religiously I check off each charge from the bank statement and keep track this way. Yet, I'm always off several hundred dollars while reconciling and that's a little frustrating.
Re the colors: I want the charges to be in RED and also the BALANcE (as long as I have a negative balance.) Of course when the statement comes in I want to wind up with a big fat Zero. There could be a plus or minus amount, depending if I make a purchase about the same time they issue the statement. - I need a step by step start (set-up) to get this thing going right. - Thanks for looking.

Debit Amounts will always get subtracted from an Account's balance while Deposit Amounts will always be added. Is it possible that when your Account balance is looking off, you're dealing with a negative balance?

Actually, where you say charges are suddenly subtracted and payments are added, that's normal behavior because charges should be treated as Debits and payments as Deposits. Perhaps you could give us a specific example so we can better understand exactly what you're dealing with, wherein you note the balance, then describe some credit card Entries input after (including the Entry kind and amount of them), and then what your balance turns out to be.

Also, something to keep in mind is that the running Balance column can look off if date-sorting is not enabled. So, ensure Entries are sorted by date by clicking the Date column header (the rectangle at the top of the dates that says ‘Date’ in it).

Now, regarding coloration, it's important to note that the entire row for an Entry will always be displayed in the color that sets for the particular kind of Entry. Red is default color for Debits and green is the default for Deposits (but it sounds like you have black set). The idea to add independent coloring of the balance based off whether it's positive or negative has come up before, so that's something we're considering adding to a future release.

Here's the basic step-by-step for dealing with a Credit Card Account:

1. Create the Account by choosing 'New Account...' from the Account menu.

2. On the Account options sheet, set a negative Starting Balance that reflects what is owed to the credit provider.

3. Enter all charges as Debits, each of which increase what's owed, and all payments as deposit, which will chip away at the debt.


Another thing to mention is that some credit providers issue statements that depict transactions in reverse with each charge showing a positive value and each payment showing a negative value, which can make things quite confusing.

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Allan Woodall
Phosphorescent Phage
Splasm Software
http://www.splasm.com