Gold as Commodity?

[John Ralls]

> On Jan 25, 2017, at 12:26 PM, GWB <gwb at 2realms.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello, Lane,
> 
> If gnucash is crashing, then that's a problem the gnucash user list
> might be able to solve, so let's also post emails to
> gnucash-user at gnucash.org; I can't remember the method the list uses,
> either in the To: or Cc: field.  What operating system are you using,
> and which version of gnucash?  Someone else may have more experience
> with price editor than I do, and might be able to figure out the
> problem.
> 
> The earlier replies from Tuomo, John and Plutocrat might point you in
> a better direction, that is, treating Gold as a currency.  I would be
> interested as well if that were possible.  It would be less accurate,
> but easier, than using a Forex account to determine the value of gold
> (or silver, bitcoin, etc.).
> 
> Anyone else have ideas on this?
> 
> Gordon
> 
> On Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 8:59 AM, Lane Lester <lane.lester at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> On Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 12:08 AM, GWB <gwb at 2realms.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Here's the recent thread about gold on lists.gnucash.org:
>>> 
>>> http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2017-January/068415.html
>> 
>> 
>> Thanks for the reply, Gordon. The above link and your words were very
>> helpful, and I was finally able to set up an account for Goldmoney. I
>> selected Stock as the Account Type and Assets as the Parent Account. I
>> clicked OK and got the error: You must choose a commodity.
>> 
>> I couldn't find the word "commodity." I clicked Select for Security/currency
>> and got a little window with Type and Security as fields. Type offers me
>> only stock exchanges, and Security offers me no choices, just a blank field.
>> If I type in "Gold," the OK remains grayed out. I typed New and created an
>> item with Gold for all fields and FUND for the Type. I was then able to
>> click both OK's and create the account.
>> 
>> I then was able to create transactions of my initial purchase and the 5%
>> bonus Goldmoney gave me for signing up. I put the grams in for Shares and
>> gold price to get the Buy dollars correct. The Balance shows my total grams
>> of gold.
>> 
>> The linked thread talked about using the Price Editor to track the value. I
>> followed the directions as well as I could, but clicking OK there caused
>> GnuCash to crash.

Lane,

If you want to use the XAU currency for Gold then the account must be of type Asset or Bank. Types Stock and Fund force you to use a user-created commodity, which you would create with the security editor (Tools>Security Editor). You can do that by clicking the "new" button on the "Select Security" dialog box, the one that has only stock exchanges in the "Type" selector. You'll find instructions in http://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.6/C/gnucash-guide/invest-setup1.html#invest-setup-stockaccounts2 <http://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.6/C/gnucash-guide/invest-setup1.html#invest-setup-stockaccounts2>. "Type"
is a bit misnamed, "category" would be better. It's there solely to help you organize your securities and it's free  text. There are some default already in place but you can create others if you like.


If you can get the Price Editor to crash again I'd like to hear the details of how you did it. 

Regards,
John Ralls