[GNC-dev] New balsheet (and P&L report), API considerations, and (slow?) KVP in Account.cpp

[Christopher Lam]

Hi Stephen, Dave &al

Thank you -

Dave - the changes are merely cosmetic therefore easy.

It sounds there are still 2 desired presentational types - (1) Dave's
approach = *recursive-bal* - 'parent' accounts generally collect their
children account amounts; if they also have their own amount, the latter is
rendered on the next line, indented as a child account. (2) Stephen's
approach = *multilevel-bal* - parent accounts' amounts are hidden unless
they exist.

With *multilevel *balances we expect multiple sublevels; so the following
becomes feasible:
Expenses:Household:Child1           (parent-acc without amount)
Expenses:Household:Child1:Sports = $30
Expenses:Household:Child1:Clothing = $40
TOTAL Expenses:Household:Child1 = $70

Expenses:Household:Child2 = $20 (parent-acc with amounts)
Expenses:Household:Child2:Sports = $20
Expenses:Household:Child2:Clothing = $20
TOTAL Expenses:Household:Child2 = $60
TOTAL Expenses:Household = $xxx
TOTAL Expenses = $yyy
^ notice there will be as many TOTAL lines as there are levels from root.

I'll try to restore the multilevel subtotals - I had received no feedback
and it is rather difficult to debug; as I mentioned to Stephen I'd removed
it, but I expect it can be done.

The existing code is a mess and I want them gone, but will need to know the
amounts are correct.

C

On 30 June 2018 at 18:50, DaveC49 <davidcousens at bigpond.com> wrote:

> Chris,
>  I have the multicolumn report up and running in V3.2. In addition to
> adding
> your file I also had to incorporate it in the CMakeLists.txt in
> ~/gnucash/report/standard-reports to have it available from the menu.
> Initially I will just comment on the presentation, as I don't have a
> testfile setup with which I can check the numbers out yet.
>
> I need to emphasize that these are my personal preferences for clarity of
> presentation and not any accounting profession standard as such. IAS-1
> (https://www.iasplus.com/en/standards/ias/ias1) the IFRS standard does not
> specify any particular layout and format and mainly concentrates on what
> content has to be presented in the four standard financial statements (some
> individual jurisdictions may be more prescriptive):
>     Statement of financial position (balance sheet);
>     Statement of profit and loss and other comprehensive income;
>     Statement of cash flows;
>     Statement of changes in equity.
>
> One of the problems of a multicolumn report is in representing an account
> heirarchy which is more than 2 to 3 levels deep as I'm sure you have
> already
> discovered. You run out of ways of clearly delineating the totals at each
> level fairly quickly. This is much easier when you can have a column at
> each
> level of the heirarchy.
>
> 1. I would put the date headings one line up from the Asset Bold heading.
> 2. i wouldn't use double lines under sub-totals within the major Asset,
> Liability and Equity groups but would just use a single line under them and
> reserve the double underline for the total in each of those major sections,
> 3. With the Totals, I would not incorporate the full account heirarchy in
> the heading, but just the parent account that the subtotal is for. Then
> indenting of the account heirarchy can then indicate the heirarchy level
> and
> what are totals at that level. You could perhaps augment this by using
> decreasing font sixes as the heirarchy level increases.
> 4. If it is possible, I would have the total of any transactions direct to
> the parent account displayed in the same manner as any of its child
> accounts
> and balances so that the total displayed for the parent is the balance of
> the direct transactions + any child account totals. If no direct
> transactions, drop this as a line item. Since GnuCash does allow this
> 5. Also consider totalling up rather than down (avoids having to repeat the
> Level Heading with a Total label.
> 6. There is no need for a separate Net Worth item as that is what Equity
> is.
>
> I have attached a LibreOffice document illustrating what I mean by the
> above
> in case it is not clear. I have illustrated a case where Petty Cash is a
> parent account which has transactions into it as well as having a child
> account (Ignore any table lines).
> MultiColumnBalSheetLayoutSuggestions.odt
> <http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/file/t375329/
> MultiColumnBalSheetLayoutSuggestions.odt>
>
> Hope this helps with some ideas.
>
> Cheers
> David
>
>
>
> -----
> David Cousens
> --
> Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-Dev-f1435356.html
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