New Report to End All Reports

[John Ralls]

> On May 17, 2016, at 2:05 PM, Aaron Laws <dartme18 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I have a need for a report that I don't see in GNUCash: Net Current Assets.
> Show all current assets and current liabilities (selected by user), and
> subtract them. (If this exists, please show me.) I think I could hobble
> something together by (ab)using the profit & loss report on assets and
> liabilities.
> 
> When I was considering what would be required to create this report in
> code, being a programmer, I thought of the problem abstractly. Abstractly,
> the report I want resembles a syntax tree. I simply want to be able to take
> values, perform operations on them, and add labels. The syntax tree for my
> report would look like this: http://i.imgur.com/9hyMHfx.png. Headings are
> automatically generated from account names, and the user must give headings
> to the aggregators to signify their meaning. One can image what the balance
> sheet and Profit & Loss reports might look like from this perspective.
> 
> I've seen a number of requests for this report or that, and the outlook
> isn't usually positive. With general functionality such as that described
> above, it would be at least technically possible to create many of the
> reports requested.
> 
> Anyway, I post here to find out if there is functionality like this
> anywhere in GNUCash, or if it would be appreciated as a contribution.

The Balance Sheet report shows you net worth. You probably didn't recognize it because the accounting word for it is "equity". Recall that the accounting equation is Assets = Liabilities + Equity*, so by associativity Equity = Assets - Liabilities. 

Regards,
John Ralls

* Before anyone asks about Payables and Receivables, they're either special sorts of liabilities and assets that are sometimes broken out separately in the accounting equation so it's Assets + Accounts Receivable = Liabilities + Accounts Payable + Equity or special sorts of equity in which case the equation is Assets = Liabilities + Equity + (Accounts Payable - Accounts Receivable). All arithmetically the same thing.