Hey Aaragon, this sounds similar to a question I had earlier this year: https://groups.google.com/g/beancount/c/uh6MjyOis9M/m/Qxix6NJJAQAJ
The solution I came up with was to define a common account for both previous AND current earnings by setting the following two options: ``` option "account_current_earnings" "Earnings" option "account_previous_earnings" "Earnings" ``` I believe that all fava interfaces will either have a "previous" or "current" earnings, so if you simplify them both to a single `Earnings` and draw from that account you should have sensible numbers on all reports. Best, - Dan -- Dan Schultz On Sun, Apr 23, 2023 at 3:24 AM Martin Blais <[email protected]> wrote: > The previous earnings account is just where net income from the time > before the start of the reporting period goes, but I think you should be > able to add postings to it, there little really that special about it, it's > just another account. > > On Sat, Apr 22, 2023, 18:44 Aragon <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hello, >> >> For someone who uses Beancount to keep the books of a small company, I >> was wondering what is the correct convention for declaring dividends? >> >> After reading about this in general accounting documents, it seems like >> in Beancount one should add to the Equity:Earnings:Previous account, and >> subtract from a Liabilities:Dividends-Payable account. >> >> However, in Beancount the Equity:Earnings:Previous account is a sort of >> "virtual" account which is usually not opened in the journal, whose balance >> is auto-generated. If I do open that account so that I'm able to write >> transactions to it, its balance is always visible in Fava's balance sheet, >> which I'm not sure, but it looks a bit odd. >> >> And if I use a different equity account, eg. Equity:Dividends, then the >> Equity:Earnings:Previous balance doesn't get calculated correctly, ie. it >> looks as though the company has a delicious balance of previous earnings >> when it has actually declared them as dividends. >> >> >> Thanks, >> Aragon >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Beancount" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/6759a4bf-ad0a-4eca-b9e0-fa80c23b1899n%40googlegroups.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/6759a4bf-ad0a-4eca-b9e0-fa80c23b1899n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Beancount" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/CAK21%2BhPtaXrS0D1wG6u84FoBwOLU4EyKhedq8vdHtkM9w6hunw%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/CAK21%2BhPtaXrS0D1wG6u84FoBwOLU4EyKhedq8vdHtkM9w6hunw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Beancount" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/CAAy%2BrnXXpKDT1-YtLNCPgs71%2BAgS6JEJKpyt5PAvz5QYen%3DupA%40mail.gmail.com.
