Guide Investment selling examples

David Carlson david.carlson.417 at gmail.com
Tue Aug 2 14:31:20 EDT 2016


Chris,
I do not object to the change but take care to note that the so-called
double entry only appears when the transaction is viewed from the security
account or viewed in any account with multiple split lines for the "home"
account within the transaction along with the difference between the single
line view vs double line view.  Also name the current release (2.6.13 and
earlier) here, as somewhere down the road that may change, possibly at the
2.8 release or soon thereafter.

The reason that the capital gain was historically in an additional split
line of the sale transaction was (IIRC) because the advanced portfolio
report needed it to be that way to report capital gains correctly.  I
believe that requirement has been eliminated in the last round of
improvements to that report, but correct me if I am wrong.  I have not
tested that.

David C

On Tue, Aug 2, 2016 at 3:07 AM, Chris Good <chris.good at ozemail.com.au>
wrote:

> > >> -----Original Message-----
> > >> From: John Ralls [mailto:jralls at ceridwen.us]
> > >> Sent: Saturday, 30 July 2016 9:25 AM
> > >> To: Chris Good <chris.good at ozemail.com.au>
> > >> Cc: gnucash-devel at gnucash.org
> > >> Subject: Re: Guide Investment selling examples
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>> On Jul 28, 2016, at 7:38 PM, Chris Good <chris.good at ozemail.com.au>
> > >> wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>> Why do the images in the Guide seem to duplicate the sale
> transactions.
> > >> I.e.
> > >>> in the attached, there seems to be 2 transactions for 03/21/2006 but
> > >>> the no of shares balance indicates there is only 1?
> > >>>
> > >>> Is this something an old version used to do?  If so, this must be
> > >>> very confusing to new users. Should I redo these screen shots?
> > >>
> > >> No, the screen shot is correct. It can indeed be a bit confusing.
> > >>
> > >> There are two transaction entries because the transaction has two
> > >> splits,
> > > one
> > >> for "Gross Sale" and the other for "Profit" (i.e. capital gain). It's
> > >> done
> > > this way
> > >> to tie together the two parts of the transaction; it doesn't have to
> > >> be
> > > and if
> > >> you use the Scrub Lots function it isn't; that makes two transactions
> > >> and
> > > uses
> > >> the lot slots to tie them together.
> > >>
> > >> Read carefully Chapter 8 a couple of times and it should start to
> > >> make
> > > sense.
> > >>
> > >> Regards,
> > >> John Ralls
> > >
> > > Hi John,
> > >
> > > Ah! As you say, it's because there are 2 splits to the stock account
> > > in the same transaction, and the register is in Auto-Split view.
> > > Basic view does similar.
> > > I'd forgotten it does this because I just about always use Transaction
> > > Journal view.
> > >
> > > The Help manual says: Basic Ledger: The default one line per
> > > transaction style.
> > >
> > > This is confusing UI and I think I should document it.
> > > I think the screen shots should also be in Transaction Journal view or
> > > should mention why there appears to be duplicate transactions.
> > > Is anyone still working on the new register?
> > >
> > > I'm currently working on documenting using Lots with investments.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Chris Good
> >
> > From: David T. [mailto:sunfish62 at yahoo.com]
> > Sent: Tuesday, 2 August 2016 5:20 PM
> > To: Chris Good <chris.good at ozemail.com.au>
> > Cc: John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us>; gnucash-devel at gnucash.org
> > Subject: Re: Guide Investment selling examples
> >
> > Chris,
> >
> > I agree that this is a confusing situation. In fact, in my own books, I
> have
> > decided to avoid such double-split entries by reporting each aspect as a
> > seprate transaction—that is, I create the sale transaction, and then I
> create a
> > separate transaction for the Gain or loss. This makes it possible to
> have the
> > descriptions match my expectation, and makes it easier for me to figure
> out
> > what the register is showing me.
> >
> > This problem does come up with new users, and so a brief note (perhaps in
> > the section that explains transactions) that informs users that a single
> > transaction will appear in a register as many times as there are splits
> for that
> > account.
> >
> > An additional idea might be to rewrite the capital gain section to show
> the
> > two aspects (the sale and the gain) as separate transactions. That would
> > clarify the process for new users, I think.There would still need to be
> the
> > note above, and I imagine a note explaining that the user can enter the
> > transaction as a single, multi-spilt entry.
> >
> > David T.
>
> Hi David,
>
> I agree.
> Anybody have any problems with the sale documentation being changed to
> show the capital gain transaction as a separate transaction from the sale,
> and explaining this is needed if scrubbing may be used in future?
>
> Regards,
> Chris Good
>
>
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