Why incomes are - and expenses +

An income account represents the company or people paying a salary to you. As the money flows from the income account to your bank account, first is debited and second credited. For example you will find below an income transaction and how it affects credit and debit accounts:


My employer starting balance: $0.00
My Bank account starting balance: $0.00

Date	Origin Account	Target account	Amount
04/30/2002	My employer	My Bank account	1,500.00

My employer starting balance: -$1,500.00
My Bank account starting balance: $1,500.00

Where the income account 'My employer' is debited, and the bank account credited.

However iCash always shows income accounts as positive values everywhere to make it clearer. So you will see:

My employer starting balance: $1,500.00
My Bank account starting balance: $1,500.00

The same happens to expenses.

The expense account represents the people you give money to. For example you will find below an expense transaction and how it affects credit and debit accounts:

My checking account starting balance: $300.00
Telephone balance starting balance: $ 0.00

Date	Origin Account	Target account	Amount
08/31/2003	My checking account	Telephone	150.00

My checking account ending balance: $150.00
Telephone balance ending balance: $150.00

Again iCash will show expenses balances as negative so you will see:

My checking account ending balance: $150.00
Telephone balance ending balance: -$150.00

This can sound confusing at the beginning but it is really logical. Only remember that internally Expenses accounts are always positive because they are credited and incomes accounts are negative because they are debited. But iCash will always display expenses as negative and incomes as positive to make it clearer.

In the case you need to create an income account with a starting balance remember to enter it as a negative a value and if you need to create an expense account with a starting balance remember to enter it as a positive value.

*or*

Use startup accounts (recommended)