Real-world example from my Gnucash file: I buy a present for my friend Alice for say 50$. Another friend, Bob, wants to share half of the cost and promises to give me the money next week.

I can easily [1] represent this as a split transaction where 50$ go out of my wallet's account. Half goes into Expenses:Gifts:Alice, half goes into AccountsReceivable:Bob. Once Bob pays me back, I transfer the money from AccountsReceivable:Bob back into Wallet.

[1] I guess I have different standards of "easy" than most of the population.

This is still a very small percentage of expenses most people do, though.

Not that it can't be used. I would be happy if this was taught in grade school more. But, I admit it is a rarely needed skill for most.

My credit cards are each an account that I transfer money to each month. Most of my purchases go on one of my cards and then get paid off each month. CC transactions match that CC account and a category like Expenses:Auto:Gas.

My checking account is pretty much just account "transfers" and an occasional transfer to my "Cash in Wallet" account for ATM withdrawals.

Hmm. Treating cards this way feels promising. Might even have the advantage of making you feel each purchase twice.