peter A pretty fair summary.
On Q2. It is not so much a question of what GnuCash likes as one of standard accounting practice. Not sure where your finance guy learned his accounting. GnuCash implements what is known as a double entry accounting system. Every transaction debits one account and credits another and the system of accounts in general obeys a set of rules about the sums of debits and credits in a transaction (among others) that satisfy what is known as the accounting equation which defines the relationships between the different types of accounts. Section 4.63 of the Conceptual Framework of the IFRS (International Accounting Standards) defines Equity as the residual interest in Assets after subtracting any Liabilities against those assets. This is the same definition as in GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Practice) which will be found in the standards of most countries, even those who have not adopted the IFRS formally at this stage (US for example). If Equity accounts are held under Liabilities the balances of Assets and Liabilities and Equity will no longer reflect the relationship Assets - Liabilities = Equity. This is usually expressed as Assets = Liabilities + Equity +Income -Expenses. Income(or Revenue) and Expenses are both also equity accounts but only record transactions for the current period ( and are called temporary accounts for this reason) in traditional accounting practice and are closed to Equity at the end of the accounting period in manual pen/paper bookkeeping. GnuCash however does not require a formal closing in the traditional manner, although it can be done if required, as its reporting system performs the necessary calculations in constructing the reports for a given period. David ----- David Cousens -- Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
