Pretty much, yes, although I found it a bit weak on the note that it is not really necessary.
But the larger issue is that I believe this email list could benefit from a FAQ that is posted monthly or every other month to this group. The wiki has some neat ideas about tracking year to year equity growth. I gather that the main reason for "closing" books is that on the "Accounts" tab, one can see the year-to-date expenses and income instead of the total since one started using GnuCash. It's a neat idea. On Sat, Jan 13, 2024 at 10:59 AM sunfish62--- via gnucash-user < gnucash-user@gnucash.org> wrote: > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Closing_Books > > Does that cover it? > > David T. > > On Jan 13, 2024, 4:25 PM, at 4:25 PM, Adrien Monteleone < > adrien.montele...@lusfiber.net> wrote: > >You could add A2b: > > > >Export your Chart of Accounts and write down the ending balances as > >needed. Start a new file, import your exported chart of accounts and > >set > >opening balances to the old ending balances. > > > >This method is more like Pen & Paper days in that each file only > >contains one period (year in this case) of data. > > > >----- > >As for A2(a), there's not really a solid way to 'mark' a file as > >read-only if you have access to the file. (anyone determined enough can > > > >edit it) Some folks write it to a CD-ROM, but that's about as good as > >you could expect. > > > >In addition, some folks also archive PDF copies of their year-end > >reports with the file. While the file could always be changed after the > > > >fact, the reports reflect the state of the accounts as of when they > >were > >generated. (which of course are no more immutable than the file, but at > > > >least offer a reference point) > > > >Regards, > >Adrien > > > >On 1/13/24 12:16 AM, R Losey wrote: > >> I suspect that this topic comes up about every New Year - perhaps it > >is > >> worth putting in a FAQ (if it's not in one), and perhaps posting the > >FAQ > >> monthly to this list. In the relatively short time I've been on this > >list, > >> I definitely see some repeated questions, including this end-of-year > >> question that I created, and therefore may have errors in it. > >> > >> ------- > >> Question: "How do I start a new year in GnuCash?" Alternatively, "How > >do I > >> close out the old year in GnuCash?" > >> > >> Answers as far as I can remember them: > >> General Answer: You need to determine precisely what you are trying > >to > >> accomplish in GnuCash. You may not need to do anything (see A1). If > >you > >> want to keep a backup-copy of the previous year, see A2. If you want > >to > >> close the books in the accounting sense (reset the balances of the > >income > >> and expense accounts), see A3. > >> > >> A1: There is no necessity to take any action at the start of a New > >Year. > >> GnuCash can keep several years of data in its compressed XML file > >without > >> it growing too large. > >> > >> A2: The best thing to do here is to be sure that there is no > >additional > >> transactions for end-of-year, run whatever end-of-year reports you > >need, > >> then shut down GnuCash and copy your main data file to some safe > >place. If > >> that area supports it, consider marking the file as read-only. You > >should > >> probably note the year in the name: "SmithFamilyFY2022.gnucash" or > >> something like that. There is no need to delete old data (see A1). > >> > >> A3: See the GnuCash Manual, section 8.9 for a discussion about how to > >do > >> this task, along with the caveats. > >> > > > >_______________________________________________ > >gnucash-user mailing list > >gnucash-user@gnucash.org > >To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > >https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > >----- > >Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > >You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > _______________________________________________ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > ----- > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > -- _________________________________ Richard Losey rlo...@gmail.com Micah 6:8 _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
