Examples of negative balances

General
1

As a newcomer, signed number convention is confusing sometimes. It can mean in different ways:

  • Positive means what you own, negative means what you own
  • Positive means inflow (debit), negative means outflow (credit)

I'd argue that even when a user knows that PTA programs use the second meaning, they can still occasionally confused it to the first one. So I would like to gather some examples regarding negative balances, especially the ones that are counter-intuitive (i.e. one can easily use the wrong interpretation) or can illustrate usages or consequences that are helpful to know.

Here is my example. I hope it's correct.

account revenues  ; type:R
account debt      ; type:L

2025-09-29 saving account interest received
    revenues:interest     -1000
    assets:bank:savings    1000

2025-09-29 debt interest paid
    debt:credit:card:interest   -2000
    debt:credit:card             2000
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Toward a more intuitive input syntax for plain text accounting
2

As a newcomer, signed number convention is confusing sometimes. It can mean in different ways:

  • Positive means what you own, negative means what you own
  • Positive means inflow (debit), negative means outflow (credit)

I'd argue that even when a user knows that PTA programs use the second meaning, they can still occasionally confused it to the first one.

One should also clarify that the second means inflow/outflow to an account, and different types of accounts have different meanings/effects on personal wealth. (Ie the rule is not "positive means an inflow to me".)

So I would like to gather some examples regarding negative balances, especially the ones that are counter-intuitive (i.e. one can easily use the wrong interpretation) or can illustrate usages or consequences that are helpful to know.

+1. It's worth also surveying the existing docs and examples, on the PTA site also, for anything similar to build on or consolidate.

Here is my example. I hope it's correct.

account revenues  ; type:R
account debt      ; type:L

2025-09-29 saving account interest received
    revenues:interest     -1000
    assets:bank:savings    1000

Looks good.

2025-09-29 debt interest paid
debt:credit:card:interest -2000
debt:credit:card 2000

It's hard to understand what this one means ?

3

Can you give the links to the examples? I don't see it anywhere

I mean when you have loan interest in credit card, it automatically be a part of the loan. For example, say your current loan is 10000, and the interest for that is 2000, then your new loan is 12000. Does that make sense?

Btw, I see a related discussion here: Toward a more intuitive input syntax for plain text accounting

4

I had in mind place like these, I suspect there are example journal entries around there but I haven't looked through them:

Here's what I'd expect as a common credit card payment entry:

2025-09-29 debt interest paid
    assets:bank:checking  -2000
    liabilities:bank:credit card       2000

I wouldn't track the interest part of a credit card balance separately. You'll already know the interest paid from the total of expenses:interest. But, YMMV!

5

debt:credit:card already has :interest as its child therefore moving between them is somewhat redundant. You can see that :interest is already part of the loan (use -t flag and you'll see it for yourself). Not only that, it loses critical information that the 2k in under the debt:credit:card is actually interest.

You should do something like this:

2025-01-01  Mastercard | Interest
    debt:credit:card:interest              -2000
    expenses:interest                       2000

And when you actually pay off the debt,

    debt:credit:card:interest            2000 = 0
    debt:credit:card                     10000 = 0
    assets:cash                         -12000
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