On 5/15/2022 11:15 AM, Andrea Borgia wrote:
Trying to improve my book-keeping, I would like to tackle this issue
now so I went to the documentation, precisely "11.4.1. Unrealized Gains".
Problem is, the example applies to a painting, that is an object whose
value changes, not shares whose number remains constant but whose
value changes, thus leading to a change in total valuation.
Since the end goal is to derive unrealized P&L and then include those
in the economic result for the year, I thought I could record a fake
sale, after all at book opening the next year I do a fake purchase
(with same price, just one day apart). If this makes sense, how do I
compute the P&L given the new price? Must I do that manually with a
split or is there some kind of assistance by GnuCash?
Let's try to clarify WHAT you are trying to do before considering the "how".
I am taking a GUESS as to what you want (and where you want to see it).
You need to correct what is wrong about the guess. Asking "is this what
you want?" and then refining that is how a "business analyst" works <<
the client actually knows the answer, but not until prompted by the
analyst's questions >> You ave a retired senior business analyst here.
Is your situation such that reports based solely on actuals would
present a grossly distorted picture of your financial situation.? In
other words, things like the unrealized gains of an investment might be
too large a fraction to be ignored? << this is common for the very
wealthy who structure things to minimize their income taxes >>
In other words, you want a statement of income and expenses to show
these unrealized gains (but of course separate from actual income which
might be subject to taxation?
If THIS is what you want, you would NOT have to arrange a "fake sale" to
do this. You would partition "income" into ":real income" and
"unrealized income" << all your regular income accounts would be
children of ":real" . Likewise your "pictures" asset account (I take it
that this is a mutual fund investing in "unfungible assets" like
artworks) you have a "basis" account for what you paid for your shares
and a sibling account for "estimated unrealized gain"
You would enter an adjustment at year end, quarter end, etc. that debits
this asset account (unrealized gains) and credits the unrealized income.
BTW, for historical reasons these adjustment known as "journal
transactions". You might be doing this following receipt of a statement
form the manager of this fund.
Michael D Novack
PS: If this ISN'T what you are trying to do, say so, but please note
that I might not get back to answering for a couple days. About to be
tied up in a bunch of board meetings, committee meetings, etc. one after
the other. That's what happens when you retire, they draft you for
things like being on boards, committees, etc. and sometimes you get a
bunch of meetings back to back.
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