Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions
On Wednesday, March 20th, 2024 at 04:08, J. A. Harris wrote: > > Looking at the replies with a long view, to me they are supporting the > idea of extending gnucash so it supports creating new currencies. Yes, > one can use existing currencies or create new > FUNDs/NYSEs/NEWNAMESPACEs. But it appeared there was a consensus that > those workarounds were a less than ideal kludgy solution. (I have been > repurposing currencies and do not know how many times I have had to stop > and figure out what "XTS", "XXX" or "AMD" actually represented. > Certainly any report I generate will be confusing to anyone who will not > know how I am using those currencies.) Wanted to add something to the last part of that "discussion", as I hadn't been aware that one could do this, and doing it does appear to somewhat negate the claim of confusion. Fred Bone has pointed that you do have the ability to edit the "Display Symbol" of any of the pre-supplied ISO 4217 Currencies, so I thought I'd add in an example of what happens when you do. I did this for the obvious choice for a re-adjustment, the "Angola Kwanza Reajustado" changing its "Display Symbol" from AOR to "Air Miles" An as aside, for folk who like to see what's going on under the hood, if you have your Gnucash data stored in uncompressed XML, you get an extra stanza, as follows, added to the Gnucash file: 51a52,61 > AOR > > > user_symbol > Air Miles > > > > > ISO4217 which suggests, if you are comfortable editing Gnucash files, you can probably add "Display Symbol" overrides for more than one Currency, without even firing up GnuCash - nice to know! But. I digress, so, back to the example. I then created two accounts Assets:Future Assets:Air Miles Income:Air Miles both denominated in "AOR" (FWIW, the one time I had to choose my adjusted ISO 4217 Currency by its original name/symbol), and then created two sub-accounts of the latter, so Income:Air Miles:Scheme Income:Air Miles:Petrol Partner however, both accounts, by virtue of being created as sub-accounts, automatically get a default of denomination of "AOR", so you no longer have to remember which ISO 4217 Currency you have overriden for use with the accounts. I then created a couple of TXNs, putting Income into the Asset, and then generated a report (the rendering here is best viewed in a monospaced font) Transaction Report >From 01/01/2024 To 31/12/2024 DateDescription Transfer from/toAmount Air Miles March 2024 01/03/2024 Opening Offer Income:Air Miles:Scheme Air Miles500.00 25/03/2024 Some Fuel CoIncome:Air Miles:Petrol Partner Air Miles26.00 Total For March 2024 Air Miles526.00 Total For Air Miles Air Miles526.00 Grand Total Air Miles526.00 As you can see, ALL mention of the "Angola Kwanza Reajustado", or rather, its ISO 4217 symbol "AOR", has gone and the report appears to be solely denominated in "Air Miles". A very simplistic example, I'll grant you but, still - a lot less confusing that a report denominated in "AOR", which could well be interpreted as Album-oriented rock pressings in certain contexts. Hoping that helps you get closer to where you wanted to be. ___ 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.
Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions
by Michelangelo iv. Security/currency: Michelangelo (Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni) v. Smallest fraction: Use Commodity Value vi. Account Color: vii. Notes: viii. Account Type: Stock ix. Parent Account: Asset-Famous Paintings. x. Click OK and done Now when you buy a painting say for a million dollar, you would enter a transaction as follows: - Withdraw one million from account named “Asset-Checking Account” - Withdraw one share from account named “Trading-ARTIST- Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni” - Deposit one share into account named “Assets-Famous Paintings-The Creation of Adam” - Deposit one million dollar into account named “Trading-CURRENCY-USD” There is however a drawback to this – it only works for a single painting by a single artist, which is fine for my use case. If there are multiple painting to be held by a single artist then step 1) of defining artist as an security would have to be unique by being a bit creative with so it is unique. I do so by defining full name as “The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo” (painting x by artist y format) and adjusting rest of the attributes accordingly. As the painting appreciates, it can be tracked in price database. I am sure there is better way to do so, so comments and/or suggestion are welcome… From: David Warren Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2024 4:58 PM To: Kalpesh Patel Cc: R Losey ; Tommy Trussell ; J. A. Harris ; gnucash-user@gnucash.org Subject: Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions Thanks Kalpesh. The art bucket makes sense to me. I understand having individual paintings be individual assets (like individual stocks) But I don't quite know what you mean when you suggest setting up artists as "securities". Would you mind explaining further? (If I have a brokerage account with individual stocks or bonds, I also think of each of those stocks or bonds as "securities". Hence my confusion with this 'higher level' proposed "security" for an artist.) Thanks On Tue, Mar 19, 2024 at 11:24 AM Kalpesh Patel mailto:kalpesh.pa...@usa.net> > wrote: Just in case this is lost or not known, a new namespace can be created by simply specifying text in the namespace field when defining a "new" commodity or security. Existing commodity or security can be shuffled or put under a new namespace by editing the security and simply typing in new string in the namespace field. Only one that cannot be changed or added into is the "Currencies" namespace and what it contains. "FUNDS" (for mutual funds?) and "NYSE" (for securities/stocks?) are, I believe, carried forward as historical but when creating a new file, "FUNDS" and "NYSE" are not created, at least not on the Window version of 4.18 GNC that I am testing on. I actually use this capability and have created namespace for exchanges to place security into where it is traded (according to Yahoo since I screen scrape for EOD updates via Python script), as well as tracking investments in paintings by artists where artist is a "security" and each painting is an "asset" under a "brokerage" account. It works well. As for tracking things like miles earned, etc., I believe there is always in-direct way of finding conversion ratio, albeit it may change every time you use it but it is there. More so as different airlines have different conversion rates so this only make sense to set it up that way. Just an idea with one time setup (*PLEA - Accounting SMEs please weight in if this doesn't look right*): create a new name space called "Airline Mileage", create each airline mileage program as a commodity under it, and then create an parent asset account called "Earned Mileage" and then you can track mileage that is earned from each program. All those "bonus" miles that are earned are one way or another convertible to official "Currency". -Original Message- From: R Losey mailto:rlo...@gmail.com> > Sent: Monday, March 18, 2024 6:51 PM To: Tommy Trussell mailto:tommy.truss...@gmail.com> > Cc: J. A. Harris mailto:prod...@harrisja.us> >; gnucash-user@gnucash.org <mailto:gnucash-user@gnucash.org> Subject: Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions On Mon, Mar 18, 2024 at 5:43 PM Tommy Trussell mailto:tommy.truss...@gmail.com> > wrote: > On Sun, Mar 17, 2024 at 4:3
Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions
On 19 March 2024 at 16:08, J. A. Harris said: [...] > (I have been repurposing currencies and do not > know how many times I have had to stop and figure out what "XTS", "XXX" > or "AMD" actually represented. Certainly any report I generate will be > confusing to anyone who will not know how I am using those currencies.) So why not change the "display symbol" to something meaningful? ___ 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.
Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions
On Wednesday, March 20th, 2024 at 04:08, J. A. Harris wrote: > > Looking at the replies with a long view, to me they are supporting the > idea of extending gnucash so it supports creating new currencies. Yes, > one can use existing currencies or create new > FUNDs/NYSEs/NEWNAMESPACEs. But it appeared there was a consensus that > those workarounds were a less than ideal kludgy solution. (I have been > repurposing currencies and do not know how many times I have had to stop > and figure out what "XTS", "XXX" or "AMD" actually represented. According to the ISO standard defining alpha codes and numeric codes for the representation for currencies, ISO 4217, at least as documented at this Wikipedia page (can never recall which ISO standards you have to pay to get from the ISO, hence falling back to Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217 "The code XTS is reserved for use in testing." "The code XXX is used to denote a "transaction" involving no currency." so those two actually have a defined meaning? > Certainly any report I generate will be confusing to anyone who will not > know how I am using those currencies.) Presumably, people wouldn't be expecting to see you reporting on AMD 051 2 Armenian dram if you weren't known to be conducting tranasactions in that currency, and so readers would rightly expect to see some additional definition on the report? Of course, if you really want to consistently use AMD for something other than the Armenian dram, then you could download the source; edit this file ./libgnucash/engine/iso-4217-currencies.xml so as to have this stanza contain the info you want, and compile your own Gnucash, complete with whatever "currencies" you want to be in it. FWIW, the notes in that file do mention that it "... is not currently used at runtime. It's used to generate the contents of iso-4217-currencies.c." so perhaps at some point in the future, there will be a way to load "currencies" from an XML file at runtime. As to whether you could add your own stanzas to that file and have a custom Gnucash compile against it, you'ld need to check to see if the internal arrays are pre-sized, or generated by the number of stanzas seen in the XML file when it's processed. Either way, it sounds do-able. HTH ___ 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.
Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions
Just simplifying the field/attribute names with terms like Item and Type would help more generalised inventory use without detracting from current functionality. Jargon like Namespace has no place in the user interface. ___ 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.
Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions
Thanks Kalpesh. The art bucket makes sense to me. I understand having individual paintings be individual assets (like individual stocks) But I don't quite know what you mean when you suggest setting up *artists* as "securities". Would you mind explaining further? (If I have a brokerage account with individual stocks or bonds, I also think of each of those stocks or bonds as "securities". Hence my confusion with this 'higher level' proposed "security" for an artist.) Thanks On Tue, Mar 19, 2024 at 11:24 AM Kalpesh Patel wrote: > Just in case this is lost or not known, a new namespace can be created by > simply specifying text in the namespace field when defining a "new" > commodity or security. Existing commodity or security can be shuffled or > put under a new namespace by editing the security and simply typing in new > string in the namespace field. Only one that cannot be changed or added > into is the "Currencies" namespace and what it contains. "FUNDS" (for > mutual funds?) and "NYSE" (for securities/stocks?) are, I believe, carried > forward as historical but when creating a new file, "FUNDS" and "NYSE" are > not created, at least not on the Window version of 4.18 GNC that I am > testing on. > > I actually use this capability and have created namespace for exchanges to > place security into where it is traded (according to Yahoo since I screen > scrape for EOD updates via Python script), as well as tracking investments > in paintings by artists where artist is a "security" and each painting is > an "asset" under a "brokerage" account. It works well. > > As for tracking things like miles earned, etc., I believe there is always > in-direct way of finding conversion ratio, albeit it may change every time > you use it but it is there. More so as different airlines have different > conversion rates so this only make sense to set it up that way. Just an > idea with one time setup (*PLEA - Accounting SMEs please weight in if this > doesn't look right*): create a new name space called "Airline Mileage", > create each airline mileage program as a commodity under it, and then > create an parent asset account called "Earned Mileage" and then you can > track mileage that is earned from each program. All those "bonus" miles > that are earned are one way or another convertible to official "Currency". > > > -Original Message- > From: R Losey > Sent: Monday, March 18, 2024 6:51 PM > To: Tommy Trussell > Cc: J. A. Harris ; gnucash-user@gnucash.org > Subject: Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions > > On Mon, Mar 18, 2024 at 5:43 PM Tommy Trussell > wrote: > > > On Sun, Mar 17, 2024 at 4:37 PM J. A. Harris > wrote: > > > > > On 3/17/24 15:54, Michael or Penny Novack wrote: > > > > Those are "commodities" > > > > > > I am aware of that. Currencies, Funds, and NYSEs are all particular > > > types of Commodities. There is no current support in gnucash for > > > defining Commodities other than those three types. > > > > > > > I wanted to keep track of mileage for corporate reimbursement purposes, > so > > I created a "FUND" with the symbol "Miles" abbreviated "M," and I > created a > > Liability account called Mileage, whose currency is Miles, with a contra > > liability account called "Driving Owed," whose currency is Dollars. Every > > time I enter "Miles" in the register, I make sure its exchange value in > > Driving Owed dollars matches the current IRS reimbursement rate (which > can > > sometimes change multiple times during the year). > > > > When the company does a reimbursement for Driving Owed, a bank > transaction > > happens so the contra account to Driving Owed is the corporate bank > > account. > > > > Maybe this is a perversion of the system somehow, but it seems to work > for > > me. > > > > It seems if you wanted to keep track of Credit Card Points or Airline > Miles > > or whatever, you could create a similar "currency" or "fund" that matches > > your specification. But I presume there is some reason it doesn't work > for > > you in the same way mileage does in my example. > > > > > You're not alone; I do something similar; for tracking the bonus points for > retailer "Fred", I created a "stock" with the Symbol FBP (Fred Bonus > Points) and use it to track points in and out of the bonus account. > > -- > _ > Richard Losey > rlo...@gmail.
Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions
On 3/19/24 11:22, Kalpesh Patel wrote: Just in case this is lost or not known, a new namespace can be created by simply specifying text in the namespace field when defining a "new" commodity or security. Thanks to all who replied. Some good stuff included. That a new namespace can be created was something new to me. Good to know. Looking at the replies with a long view, to me they are supporting the idea of extending gnucash so it supports creating new currencies. Yes, one can use existing currencies or create new FUNDs/NYSEs/NEWNAMESPACEs. But it appeared there was a consensus that those workarounds were a less than ideal kludgy solution. (I have been repurposing currencies and do not know how many times I have had to stop and figure out what "XTS", "XXX" or "AMD" actually represented. Certainly any report I generate will be confusing to anyone who will not know how I am using those currencies.) The new namespace idea is interesting but the names is that new space work just like Stocks or Funds, so they share their weaknesses. One person objected to calling something like airlines points as a currency because are not "legal tender of some sovereign power". But IMHO, and in the opinion of a number of dictionaries I have consulted, currency applies to a wider range of things. So certainly a country's legal tender is included in the definition but also included are anything "that is in circulation as a medium of exchange" or anything which is "a common article for bartering" [Merriam-Webster]. Whether the solution is being able to add new currencies or being able to create a new currency namespace (I could only find a way to create new namespaces that implemented new Stock like commodities, not currency like ones), I would be happy with either. ___ 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.
Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions
Just in case this is lost or not known, a new namespace can be created by simply specifying text in the namespace field when defining a "new" commodity or security. Existing commodity or security can be shuffled or put under a new namespace by editing the security and simply typing in new string in the namespace field. Only one that cannot be changed or added into is the "Currencies" namespace and what it contains. "FUNDS" (for mutual funds?) and "NYSE" (for securities/stocks?) are, I believe, carried forward as historical but when creating a new file, "FUNDS" and "NYSE" are not created, at least not on the Window version of 4.18 GNC that I am testing on. I actually use this capability and have created namespace for exchanges to place security into where it is traded (according to Yahoo since I screen scrape for EOD updates via Python script), as well as tracking investments in paintings by artists where artist is a "security" and each painting is an "asset" under a "brokerage" account. It works well. As for tracking things like miles earned, etc., I believe there is always in-direct way of finding conversion ratio, albeit it may change every time you use it but it is there. More so as different airlines have different conversion rates so this only make sense to set it up that way. Just an idea with one time setup (*PLEA - Accounting SMEs please weight in if this doesn't look right*): create a new name space called "Airline Mileage", create each airline mileage program as a commodity under it, and then create an parent asset account called "Earned Mileage" and then you can track mileage that is earned from each program. All those "bonus" miles that are earned are one way or another convertible to official "Currency". -Original Message----- From: R Losey Sent: Monday, March 18, 2024 6:51 PM To: Tommy Trussell Cc: J. A. Harris ; gnucash-user@gnucash.org Subject: Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions On Mon, Mar 18, 2024 at 5:43 PM Tommy Trussell wrote: > On Sun, Mar 17, 2024 at 4:37 PM J. A. Harris wrote: > > > On 3/17/24 15:54, Michael or Penny Novack wrote: > > > Those are "commodities" > > > > I am aware of that. Currencies, Funds, and NYSEs are all particular > > types of Commodities. There is no current support in gnucash for > > defining Commodities other than those three types. > > > > I wanted to keep track of mileage for corporate reimbursement purposes, so > I created a "FUND" with the symbol "Miles" abbreviated "M," and I created a > Liability account called Mileage, whose currency is Miles, with a contra > liability account called "Driving Owed," whose currency is Dollars. Every > time I enter "Miles" in the register, I make sure its exchange value in > Driving Owed dollars matches the current IRS reimbursement rate (which can > sometimes change multiple times during the year). > > When the company does a reimbursement for Driving Owed, a bank transaction > happens so the contra account to Driving Owed is the corporate bank > account. > > Maybe this is a perversion of the system somehow, but it seems to work for > me. > > It seems if you wanted to keep track of Credit Card Points or Airline Miles > or whatever, you could create a similar "currency" or "fund" that matches > your specification. But I presume there is some reason it doesn't work for > you in the same way mileage does in my example. > > You're not alone; I do something similar; for tracking the bonus points for retailer "Fred", I created a "stock" with the Symbol FBP (Fred Bonus Points) and use it to track points in and out of the bonus account. -- _ 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.
Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions
On Mon, Mar 18, 2024 at 5:43 PM Tommy Trussell wrote: > On Sun, Mar 17, 2024 at 4:37 PM J. A. Harris wrote: > > > On 3/17/24 15:54, Michael or Penny Novack wrote: > > > Those are "commodities" > > > > I am aware of that. Currencies, Funds, and NYSEs are all particular > > types of Commodities. There is no current support in gnucash for > > defining Commodities other than those three types. > > > > I wanted to keep track of mileage for corporate reimbursement purposes, so > I created a "FUND" with the symbol "Miles" abbreviated "M," and I created a > Liability account called Mileage, whose currency is Miles, with a contra > liability account called "Driving Owed," whose currency is Dollars. Every > time I enter "Miles" in the register, I make sure its exchange value in > Driving Owed dollars matches the current IRS reimbursement rate (which can > sometimes change multiple times during the year). > > When the company does a reimbursement for Driving Owed, a bank transaction > happens so the contra account to Driving Owed is the corporate bank > account. > > Maybe this is a perversion of the system somehow, but it seems to work for > me. > > It seems if you wanted to keep track of Credit Card Points or Airline Miles > or whatever, you could create a similar "currency" or "fund" that matches > your specification. But I presume there is some reason it doesn't work for > you in the same way mileage does in my example. > > You're not alone; I do something similar; for tracking the bonus points for retailer "Fred", I created a "stock" with the Symbol FBP (Fred Bonus Points) and use it to track points in and out of the bonus account. -- _ 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.
Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions
On Sun, Mar 17, 2024 at 4:37 PM J. A. Harris wrote: > On 3/17/24 15:54, Michael or Penny Novack wrote: > > Those are "commodities" > > I am aware of that. Currencies, Funds, and NYSEs are all particular > types of Commodities. There is no current support in gnucash for > defining Commodities other than those three types. > I wanted to keep track of mileage for corporate reimbursement purposes, so I created a "FUND" with the symbol "Miles" abbreviated "M," and I created a Liability account called Mileage, whose currency is Miles, with a contra liability account called "Driving Owed," whose currency is Dollars. Every time I enter "Miles" in the register, I make sure its exchange value in Driving Owed dollars matches the current IRS reimbursement rate (which can sometimes change multiple times during the year). When the company does a reimbursement for Driving Owed, a bank transaction happens so the contra account to Driving Owed is the corporate bank account. Maybe this is a perversion of the system somehow, but it seems to work for me. It seems if you wanted to keep track of Credit Card Points or Airline Miles or whatever, you could create a similar "currency" or "fund" that matches your specification. But I presume there is some reason it doesn't work for you in the same way mileage does in my example. > - > 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.
Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions
I think sort order should be a selection on any table-flavored report. For instance, I prefer the portfolio report to be symbol sorted for ease of comparison with online positions, but it is account sorted. ___ 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.
Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions
It would seem more straightforward just to have separate books for the two funds. That's pretty standard in UK government accounts, for instance: Capital Account and Revenue Account. (That's if we can believe /Yes, Minister/, but Margaret Thatcher called it "the best documentary the BBC ever made".) Stan Brown Tehachapi, CA, USA https://BrownMath.com/ On 2024-03-17 14:36, J. A. Harris wrote: > On 3/17/24 15:54, Michael or Penny Novack wrote: >> Your lack of accounting and understanding of the history of double >> entry is confusing you. ... > .. >> Thus for an event were EXPECTED to make a profit for the organization, >> I'd make them all of type "income". Understand? > > Yes, I do understand. The purpose of the INC+EXP would not be to put > entries in. It would be a placeholder account, under which there would > be Revenue and Expense accounts. I can think of many situations where > that would be desirable. Here is one. HOAs frequently use "fund" > accounting where there is an "Operating Fund" and a "Reserve Fund". > Each of those funds have Income and Expenses (along with other things). > So you might see a structure like this. > > Top > ├── Operating > │ ├── Assets ? > │ ├── Equity ? > │ ├── Income > │ │ ├── Expenses > │ │ └── Revenue > │ └── Liabilities ? > └── Reserve > ├── Assets ? > ├── Equity ? > ├── Income > │ ├── Expenses > │ └── Revenue > └── Liabilities ? > > In that type of situation, a General account type is useful for the > Operating and Reserve placeholder account and an Inc type is useful > for the accounts called Income. (Even if you do not want want both > Expenses and Revenues under the placeholder account named Income, you > still cannot put them under Reserve.) > > Are you saying you have never found an occasion where it would be useful > to have an upper-level account above a group of accounts, some of which > were Income and some were Expense? > > On 3/17/24 15:54, Michael or Penny Novack wrote: >> Those are "commodities" > > I am aware of that. Currencies, Funds, and NYSEs are all particular > types of Commodities. There is no current support in gnucash for > defining Commodities other than those three types. Since for things like > airline points, it seemed to me their operational characteristics as > they are used in gnucash are the same as Currencies, I thought it would > be easiest to implement them by adding support for them under the > existing Currency category. If you prefer, the name could be changed to > Currencies & Other Things. Or a fourth category could created, although > that would probably increase code complexity But all that is detail, > which I did not feel needed to be addressed at this point. > > -- > > Dr. J. A. Harris > ___ > 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.
Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions
On 3/17/24 15:54, Michael or Penny Novack wrote: Your lack of accounting and understanding of the history of double entry is confusing you. ... .. Thus for an event were EXPECTED to make a profit for the organization, I'd make them all of type "income". Understand? Yes, I do understand. The purpose of the INC+EXP would not be to put entries in. It would be a placeholder account, under which there would be Revenue and Expense accounts. I can think of many situations where that would be desirable. Here is one. HOAs frequently use "fund" accounting where there is an "Operating Fund" and a "Reserve Fund". Each of those funds have Income and Expenses (along with other things). So you might see a structure like this. Top ├── Operating │ ├── Assets ? │ ├── Equity ? │ ├── Income │ │ ├── Expenses │ │ └── Revenue │ └── Liabilities ? └── Reserve ├── Assets ? ├── Equity ? ├── Income │ ├── Expenses │ └── Revenue └── Liabilities ? In that type of situation, a General account type is useful for the Operating and Reserve placeholder account and an Inc type is useful for the accounts called Income. (Even if you do not want want both Expenses and Revenues under the placeholder account named Income, you still cannot put them under Reserve.) Are you saying you have never found an occasion where it would be useful to have an upper-level account above a group of accounts, some of which were Income and some were Expense? On 3/17/24 15:54, Michael or Penny Novack wrote: Those are "commodities" I am aware of that. Currencies, Funds, and NYSEs are all particular types of Commodities. There is no current support in gnucash for defining Commodities other than those three types. Since for things like airline points, it seemed to me their operational characteristics as they are used in gnucash are the same as Currencies, I thought it would be easiest to implement them by adding support for them under the existing Currency category. If you prefer, the name could be changed to Currencies & Other Things. Or a fourth category could created, although that would probably increase code complexity But all that is detail, which I did not feel needed to be addressed at this point. -- Dr. J. A. Harris ___ 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.
Re: [GNC] gnucash suggestions
On 3/17/2024 12:15 PM, J. A. Harris wrote: I have been using gnucash for almost 10 years now. I have downloaded the source code and even made some changes to it that I consider improvement. There are other changes that I think would be a good idea. If this is not the place to share such comments, I apologize. 2. Add a new Generic and INC+EXP account. No doubt this violates basic accounting rules but for an amateur like me, it is useful to have a single book in which I can separate sections like reserves, retirement, and operating items. Accounts of type Generic could have sub-accounts of any type. Your lack of accounting and understanding of the history of double entry is confusing you. You might think of BOTH types "income" and "expense" as having a single generic type "temp equity" (not yet recorded against equity) with the ones with type "expense" just those "temp equity" accounts whose balance is normally debit and the ones with type "income" those whose balance is normally credit. Because it is usual to want reports that group all income accounts together and all expense accounts together our books tend to reflect that. But sometimes we want to group a subset of income and a subset of expenses together instead. Some of the organizations I kept books for did "events" and so might want to group all associated with an event together. Not hard, there is no magic in the names "income" and "expense". If the balance is debit, it's and expense, if credit, an income. Thus for an event were EXPECTED to make a profit for the organization, I'd make them all of type "income". Understand? Yes, what we pay to rent the venue is an expense of the event, but we can still have an account name "venue costs" of type INCOME a child of the account that totals all income and expenses for that event. What makes the charges (the transactions for) hall rent, chair rent, cleaning, etc. expense is that they are debits to that account. 4. Give the users the ability to create new "currencies". There are a number of occasions where I have assets which have a dollar value but the accounting of that asset uses a different measure. Those are "commodities" - "currency" means something is the legal tender of some sovereign power. BUT --- there might be need to account for some "local currency" which might not be exchangeable for legal tender, and commodities are expected to have some money value. Note that I am not talking about things of no value, just not a money value (conversion might not be allowed/encouraged). Thus if I were dealing with something like "Ithaca Dollars I might use gnucash to track my balance, what I received or used them for, etc. in a separate set of books. More awkward, perhaps, assets which have value, possibly significant value, but unclear/uncertain exactly how much. Michael D Novack ___ 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.
