some of the split items show up in black (as credits rather than red debits) in reports

joelhencken

I use reports to calculate deductibles for taxes. When working correctly, splits show up in reports in red (with a minus sign). But in some of my reports, an apparently random number of the split items show in up black, so that the subtotals are wrong (something is listed as a credit in my bank account rather than an expenditure). When I examine the splits everything looks correct; only in the Report does a smattering of the items show up without the minus sign to indicate they are expenses. Has anyone seen this?

Tom Young

In reports a number that's black doesn't always mean "credit" and numbers that are red don't always mean "debit."  (I'm using the words debit and credit in their correct accounting sense here.)  If you look at a typical Spending report generally all the numbers on the report are black, both income numbers (the credits) and expense numbers (the debits). 

In reports numbers are black or red depending on the nature of the line item they're reported on.  So in a Spending report's "Expenses" section a net debit number (the "expected" state of an expense) would be black, but if that number was instead a net credit (the opposite of what you'd expect for an expense) it would be red.  The same thing happens in reverse up in the "Income" section of the report. 

If you have Transfers included in your reports you can get some surprising "color" results, depending on how the reports have been set up.

Since you say the accounting is correct my instinct is that the differences in colors you're seeing on reports has something to do with how the report is constructed, but without being able to look at the reports themselves, that's only a guess.  

Are the black numbers really "random" in the sense that running the same report several times in a row results in different numbers being printed in black each time the report is run?  If that's the case then something's wrong with the install of the program, or some corruption in the data.