Re: Trading Accounts for Securities
When I set up a trading account for a USD stock, gnucash diligently added transactions in the trading account for the stock and for USD. The stock trading account simply tracks the number of shares in the account (which is what the asset account for the stock already does). The USD trading account shows the amount spent or received. So the trading USD account shows dollar amounts for all stock transactions in USD. I did not see a way to set up trading accounts for the currency side of each stock separately, but there may well be a way. When I sell a security I post a debit to the checking account the money goes into, a credit to the security at the PURCHASE price. The remaining out of balance amount is the capital gain (loss). That is pretty simple. For a traditional IRA, I post dividends to an Income:Deferred IRA:FB account. The income is not taxable in the current year, and at year-end I will close it to equity. But its nice to know. No need really to track your basis since it is all taxed as ordinary income when distributed. If you want to keep IRA out of "income" you could just as well post the dividend to an Equity:Deferred Income account. Then when you take a distribution you can debit Equity:Deferred Income and credit Income:IRA Distribution. YMMV Keith On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 4:57 PM, Stan Brown wrote: > On 2018-02-21 12:00, Keith Bellairs wrote: > > > In the end I do not see that I get anything from using trading accounts. > I > > can see that they would be useful for currency if I had to track the > > exchange rate on every foreign currency transaction. But the IRS lets me > > use an average rate for my CDN income(expense). > > > > Am I using trading accounts wrong? > > I'm kind of wondering what they could do for me, and you've fueled my > doubts. > > I have three Vanguard accounts (taxable, Roth IRA, and traditional IRA) > and a company 401(k) to which I'm currently contributing. > > The 401(k) has "fake funds" -- they're not traded on any exchange, or if > they are then the customer service rep couldn't give me valid ticket > symbols. So I have to keep track of that myself and post realized gains > or losses in dollars, not shares. > > The Vanguard funds are all invested in subsets of the same about eight > mutual funds -- for instance, all three have VTI and VXUS, and two have > BND -- so GnuCash could look up values there. But I'm not clear on what > that would buy me, with my "set it and forget it" portfolio. > > For the two IRAs I don't need to do any tax accounting: the Roth is tax > free and any withdrawal from the traditional will be ordinary income. > > The taxable account has just two Vanguard funds in it, and that's not > going to change. But since dividends are reinvested automatically, every > month there are purchases of fractional shares, which I'd have to tell > GnuCash about. Is that worth it, or am I better off to stick with the > spreadsheet I've already developed, and just make one-off entries in > GnuCash, in dollars not shares, when I buy or sell (which will be rarely)? > > -- > Regards, > Stan Brown > Tompkins County, New York, USA > http://BrownMath.com > http://OakRoadSystems.com > ___ 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.
Re: Trading Accounts for Securities
On 2018-02-21 12:00, Keith Bellairs wrote: > In the end I do not see that I get anything from using trading accounts. I > can see that they would be useful for currency if I had to track the > exchange rate on every foreign currency transaction. But the IRS lets me > use an average rate for my CDN income(expense). > > Am I using trading accounts wrong? I'm kind of wondering what they could do for me, and you've fueled my doubts. I have three Vanguard accounts (taxable, Roth IRA, and traditional IRA) and a company 401(k) to which I'm currently contributing. The 401(k) has "fake funds" -- they're not traded on any exchange, or if they are then the customer service rep couldn't give me valid ticket symbols. So I have to keep track of that myself and post realized gains or losses in dollars, not shares. The Vanguard funds are all invested in subsets of the same about eight mutual funds -- for instance, all three have VTI and VXUS, and two have BND -- so GnuCash could look up values there. But I'm not clear on what that would buy me, with my "set it and forget it" portfolio. For the two IRAs I don't need to do any tax accounting: the Roth is tax free and any withdrawal from the traditional will be ordinary income. The taxable account has just two Vanguard funds in it, and that's not going to change. But since dividends are reinvested automatically, every month there are purchases of fractional shares, which I'd have to tell GnuCash about. Is that worth it, or am I better off to stick with the spreadsheet I've already developed, and just make one-off entries in GnuCash, in dollars not shares, when I buy or sell (which will be rarely)? -- Regards, Stan Brown Tompkins County, New York, USA http://BrownMath.com http://OakRoadSystems.com ___ 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.
Re: Trading Accounts for Securities
Thanks, Derek. I get that. I guess trading accounts do not provide for a use case I need. Keith On Wed, Feb 21, 2018 at 12:10 PM, Derek Atkins wrote: > Hi, > > Trading accounts do not show you UNREALIZED gains. They exist to help you > balance out REALIZED gains once you have a sale transaction. > > -derek > > On Wed, February 21, 2018 12:00 pm, Keith Bellairs wrote: > > I started looking at using trading accounts but I may be missing > > something. > > > > The trading account created by gnucash for a stock shows as a balance the > > number of shares in the account. This is also the balance shown in the > > asset account for that stock. > > > > Transactions for all stocks post to the USD (in my case) trading account. > > So the USD trading account seems to show the aggregate of purchases, > > sales, > > gains. losses etc. of all the stocks - sort of like the amount of money I > > have on the table for trading. But I would rather see the realized gains > > in > > an income account. And I can see the total unrealized gain(loss) in an > > advanced portfolio report. > > > > I had guessed that unrealized gains would somehow be reflected in the > > trading account when the value of the underlying security is updated. In > > that way the trading account would look like the marginable value of my > > stocks. Then I looked at the documentation. The examples only show > > realized > > gains being posted. So again, the actual asset account for a security > > provides me more info. I guess I could manually post unrealized gain to > > the > > trading account each time I look up the price of a security, since the > > Trading Account - USD does not have to match the real amount of cash on > > hand. > > > > In the end I do not see that I get anything from using trading accounts. > I > > can see that they would be useful for currency if I had to track the > > exchange rate on every foreign currency transaction. But the IRS lets me > > use an average rate for my CDN income(expense). > > > > Am I using trading accounts wrong? > > > > Keith > > ___ > > 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. > > > > > -- >Derek Atkins 617-623-3745 >de...@ihtfp.com www.ihtfp.com >Computer and Internet Security Consultant > > ___ 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.
Re: Trading Accounts for Securities
Hi, Trading accounts do not show you UNREALIZED gains. They exist to help you balance out REALIZED gains once you have a sale transaction. -derek On Wed, February 21, 2018 12:00 pm, Keith Bellairs wrote: > I started looking at using trading accounts but I may be missing > something. > > The trading account created by gnucash for a stock shows as a balance the > number of shares in the account. This is also the balance shown in the > asset account for that stock. > > Transactions for all stocks post to the USD (in my case) trading account. > So the USD trading account seems to show the aggregate of purchases, > sales, > gains. losses etc. of all the stocks - sort of like the amount of money I > have on the table for trading. But I would rather see the realized gains > in > an income account. And I can see the total unrealized gain(loss) in an > advanced portfolio report. > > I had guessed that unrealized gains would somehow be reflected in the > trading account when the value of the underlying security is updated. In > that way the trading account would look like the marginable value of my > stocks. Then I looked at the documentation. The examples only show > realized > gains being posted. So again, the actual asset account for a security > provides me more info. I guess I could manually post unrealized gain to > the > trading account each time I look up the price of a security, since the > Trading Account - USD does not have to match the real amount of cash on > hand. > > In the end I do not see that I get anything from using trading accounts. I > can see that they would be useful for currency if I had to track the > exchange rate on every foreign currency transaction. But the IRS lets me > use an average rate for my CDN income(expense). > > Am I using trading accounts wrong? > > Keith > ___ > 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. > -- Derek Atkins 617-623-3745 de...@ihtfp.com www.ihtfp.com Computer and Internet Security Consultant ___ 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.
