losing data

[Chris Bester]

Hi Maf
It is now clear that we are talking past each other.  When my bank statement starts with an opening balance of R1000 and ends with R1500, that means my payments "in" exceeded my payments "out" by R500, but the ending balance would be R1500.  On my balance sheet, however, it would reflect as an opening balance of R1000 and a closing balance of R1500 which is an  increase in assets or a profit of R500.  My question is plain and simple; how do I get my balance sheet to reflect my NEW opening balance at the beginning of my new financial year?  Every financial year should have its own opening balance, not the balance of a few years ago.

You quite correctly mention that all financial reports should reflect last year's and this year's balance sheets side by side, but this is exactly my point, the ending balance of last year is reflected as the opening balance this year.  That was my point all along, how do I do that in Gnucash.

Could you be so kind as to explain your sentence on Multicolumn more clearly.  I am not sure I know what IIRC means.

Thanks for our patience

Chris 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Maf. King [mailto:maf at chilwell.net] 
Sent: 27 December 2013 12:20 PM
To: Chris Bester
Cc: 'Colin Law'; gnucash-user at gnucash.org
Subject: Re: losing data

On Fri 27 December 13 11:32:21 Chris Bester wrote:
> Hi Colin
> 
> I have to disagree, every bank statement has a new opening balance 
> which is the closing balance from the previous period.  The Gnucash 
> balance sheet starts with the original opening balance and keeps on 
> carrying that same balance forward.  I fail to see how you can say a 
> balance sheet is not relative to a particular time.  It is exactly 
> that, my balance sheet, at the end of my financial year, should have 
> the balances that the year was started with, the activities in my 
> accounts during the year and the balance that I end with.  Or 
> somewhere we are talking past each other or using different terminology.
> 
> Hope you can enlighten me
> 
> Chris
> 

Hi Chris.

So what you are saying, by implication, is that if your bank statement starts with say £1000, finishes with a balance of £1500 so the statement should end up only showing £500 total at the end of the period?

Some reports (Balance Sheet is one) show the situation at a given moment in time, not a change.  It is a "statement of position" for shareholders and possibly other interested parties (gubberment etc.)

Multicolumn report - IIRC, options, set columns to 2, then contents tab, add 2 balance sheets.  then, at the bottom of the generated balance sheets, there is a "report options" link that will let you get the reporting date etc. for the left and right hand balance sheets.

That is more or less how every "annual financial report" I've ever seen in the UK shows the balance sheet  - this year and last year side by side.

HTH,
MAf.