Split Transaction Expense Shows in Report as "Income" (negative expense)

Frith

For five months (April-August 2020) I entered my credit card information with a split transaction - each charge was assigned to an expense category. The total credit card bill was $0 because I had a large credit from a refund so I entered that as a travel expense with a minus sign (it was a travel refund).

In the annual transaction report I generated, the travel credit showed up correctly as a reduction in travel expense (offsetting the amount previous recorded as an expense). But all the other expenses in the split transaction show up in the report as income in their respective budget category - e.g. internet expense, which show as negative numbers in the annual report, have a positive amount for those five months).

So effectively the report shows a reduction in expense for the travel credit and reduction of expenses for all the other line items in the split. This only occurs for those months where there was a card credit balance that offset the charges for the month.

I have deleted and re-entered the data and this does not fix the problem. Maybe it is a logic problem in the program when a a split transaction has a net $0 amount with debits and credits.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Frankx

Hi @Frith

Based on what you've said above, it sounds like you my have duplicated the "large credit" by entering those credit card charges as "reduction of expenses for all the other line items in the split".

What should have happened, over the timeframe from just after the "large credit" was posted to the account until the credit was used up, was a gradual decrease in the "large credit" over time until it was eventually used up and you were again required to make payments.  To fix this, I think you'll need to take a close look at the entries, and likely reverse the sign (+/-) of the entries for those charges.

Frankx

Frankx

Hi @Frith

Based on what you've said above, it sounds like you my have duplicated the "large credit" by entering those credit card charges as "reduction of expenses for all the other line items in the split".

What should have happened, over the timeframe from just after the "large credit" was posted to the account until the credit was used up, was a gradual decrease in the "large credit" over time until it was eventually used up and you were again required to make payments.  To fix this, I think you'll need to take a close look at the entries, and likely reverse the sign (+/-) of the entries for those charges.

Frankx

Frith

Frankx - That was exactly the problem. I had the signs exactly backwards after I had entered the original credit to the travel account. While if I had thought about it as debits and credits rather than + and -, I might have figured it out - but maybe not! - and you saved me a lot of time and frustration. Greatly appreciated.

Frankx

@Frith,

Happy to help, especially when somebody mentions "debits and credits". Just always remember "Debits = the window; Credits = the door"!!!

Frankx

Frith

Debits and credits would have gotten me there at some point - and if that failed I could always have set up "T accounts"!