you don't need the auto balancing. You could definitly write: 2015/10/12 Exxon Expenses:Auto:Gas $10.00 Liabilities:MasterCard $-5.00 Li

you don't need the auto balancing. You could definitly write: 2015/10/12 Exxon Expenses:Auto:Gas $10.00 Liabilities:MasterCard $-5.00 Liabilities:Visa $-5.00 It's still valid. However it would fail if you put a 5 and 4 here if your expense is 10. I'm still not sure how it decides between active and passive (since Expenses and Liabilities could also be other words like the german ones: "Ausgaben", "Verpflichtungen" and the program works with them, too but It can't know if its active or passive. so I don't know what would happen if I make a transaction on two aktivas, like Bank to Cash or Bank to Fund)