Year End Dates

[James Leone]

warlord at MIT.EDU wrote:

>James Leone <linuxcpa at netscape.net> writes:
>
>  
>
>>>If you need to end a period, you can File -> Export your account tree
>>>into a new file and then start a new data file (with new opening
>>>balances).  But this is a long, tedious, manual process to
>>>re-initialize all your asset and liability accounts at the end of
>>>every period.
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>I was kinda hoping to find out what piece of source code, or whatever,
>>could be changed from December to June, etc.
>>    
>>
>
>Oh, so you want the "End of Year" setting to imply June 30 and
>"Begining of Year" to be "July 1"?  
>
Yes, many government agencies and not for profit organizations have 
various year ends.

>Or the "Year to date" to imply
>"July 1 through today"?  Unfortunately there is no way to do that,
>currently.  The "year" is currently tied to calendar year. 
>
What piece of code determines this?   Is it separable, can it go in a 
.conf file?


> But I can
>certainly see the value in being able to set the year, so feel free to
>file a report at bugzilla.gnome.org.
>
>  
>
>>>Question: in what way is Net Income not properly reflected on tha
>>>Balance Sheet?
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>This is only as a result of the year end date, and when compared to
>>net income as reported on the income statement.
>>    
>>
>
>Sorry, which report is the "income statement"?  I don't see a report
>of that name in the Reports menu or any sub-menu.
>
Profit and loss = income statement.

>
>  
>
>>If I were to run an income statement from July 1 - June 30, net income
>>from that report would not equal net income on the balance sheet. Net
>>equity would be correct, but net income does not adjust itself to
>>reflect July 1 - June 30.
>>    
>>
>
>Well, the balance sheet doesn't have a start-date setting. 
>
In general that is true, but Gnu Cash breaks out profit and loss on the 
balance sheet, and profit and loss is a measurement for a certain time 
period.   :-)

> I presume
>that it's starting with the current calendar year, but I don't know.
>So, that could be part of the problem here.  Please file a report to
>get a from-date set...
>  
>
Well, I don't have much else to add here, and I don't have the time. I 
thought the programmers watch this list.

James Leone