Positive vs negative entries

[Iggy]

When I select Refund as the "type" of action from my Credit card company within my credit card account, why is the amount shown as a negative addition to the account, when it is actually a postive=credit to the account? How do I fix this? I have the same issues, when I show a "withdrawal" from a internet only type bank account to my checking account, the internet account in iCash will show a positive entry (incorrect) and the checking account a positive (correct)?

[stanbusk]

I guess you are entering the refund wrongly. If you add a refund, you have to credit the account that was previously debited. That is, place the expense account as the origin account and your bank account as the target account.

** The transaction type has no effect over the sign or the direction of a transaction **

[Iggy]

I still couldn't make it work correctly, I had to resort to marking the Origin account as Other Incomes and the target account as my credit card to get iCash to show the refund as a positive entry. Similarly I have 2 bank accounts, A and B. I have just entered a transfer from A to B. In A, the $ amount transfered/withdrawn shows as a negative amount in A (which is correct), BUT in B it also shows as a negative amount, when it should be a postive. How can this be? Similarly I have shown an amount coming from bank account A and being transferred to my credit card to pay it off. The orgin account is the Bank account (A), target account is the Credit card. In account A, the $amount is negative, in the credit card account it is also negative, but it should be a positive, as it is a payment into the credit card account not a deduction.

[stanbusk]

I don't understand your last problem. It is debited from A and credited to B right? So, negative for A and positive for B. It works that way for me here.

[Iggy]

It's not working for me.

[Iggy]

To get the right positive and negative entry's. I have had to show the transaction from bank a/c A as being Type=Withdrawal, Origin a/c=name of a/c A, Target A/C=Card Payment, Payee=name of a/c A -- this gives me a negative for this account, which is correct as it is a withdrawal. Then in the receiving bank a/c, account B, I have to manually enter Type=Transfer, Origin A/C=Other Incomes, Target A/C=account B name, Payee=account A name -- this then gives a positive entry in account B, which is correct, if I do it any other way I get positive in A, not negative. So what's wrong? When setting up I chose Home over Office, I have checked the accounts as to what each is and each bank account is listed under Banks.

[stanbusk]

As I told you previously the transaction type has absolutely no effect, it is like a text comment. The sign of a transaction is determined by the place and the type of each account. If you use an account of type 'Banks' and an account of type 'Expenses', if the bank account in the origin account and the expense account the target account, amount will be set to negative (expense). If you do the opposite, the amount will be positive (refund). Please try this and you will understand how it work. Now If you use an account of type 'Banks' and an account of type 'Incomes', if the bank account in the target account and the income account the origin account, amount will be set to positive (income). If you do the opposite, the amount will be negative. As a result you never had to set the sign yourself, just enter positive unsigned numbers. If both origin and target accounts are of type banks, the transaction is unsigned because it is a transfer.

It is explained here: Adding an Expense Transaction
and here: Adding an Income Transaction
and here: Manual - Transactions