GnuCash frustrations

[Matthew Vanecek]

Let me see if I can provide some quick insight right before bed. ;)

On Thu, 2003-01-30 at 19:30, Bill Gee wrote:
> GnuCash version 1.6.6 as provided with RedHat 8.0.
> 
> 
> 1) How do I record stock options?  I did not pay anything for them.  GnuCash 
> will not let me record an acquisition price of zero.  Yet this is part of my 
> net worth and needs to be tracked.
> 

I don't know about this.  AFAIK, stock options are a nebulous affair
that don't materialize until you purchase the stocks.  My options, e.g.,
are not transferable, and expire.  I don't track them except in my
quarterly statements to see how far below the option price the stock
price is. :/

> 2) Other 401K plans are measured in shares.  Gnucash does not seem to 
> understand that I have 304.8821 shares at 108.237 per share.  It insists I 
> have either one share at some price pretty close to what my statement says, 
> or that I have a whole bunch of shares valued at one dollar.  Both cases 
> are not correct.
> 

I regularly enter 40l(k) shares in fractions.  Have you set up the fund
in the Commodity Editor?  Under Tools|Commodity Editor, you need to make
sure your fund is entered.  Once that is done, you should be able to
enter shares normally.  You may notice that the price is extended out a
decimal, and may be .001 or so off.  This is normal--if you calculate
the cost/shares it gives you that.  I posted a similar question a while
back on this list, on Sep. 03.  You can look in the archives for my
post, "401Ks revisited".


> 3) I began entering data as of 1 Jan.  Trying to reconcile my bank 
> statement.  Can't because some of the transactions occurred in 2002.  How 
> do you completely reconcile in this situation?
> 

Dunno.  Can you enter in the 2002 transactions?  I have a habit of only
starting accounts on statement dates--since I typically only use EFT or
debit/credit cards, it works out pretty well (it doesn't happen very
often, mind you!).  So I usually don't have any outstanding checks left
over from last period--but if I did, I would still record them in the
new account.

> 4) What is the proper way to record the changing value of 401K plans?  
> Should I make a "suspense" income account and assign the gains/losses to 
> it?
> 

The change in value does not need to be recorded until you sell the
shares.  In the case of a 401K, I guess that would be at retirement, in
general.  Moving shares within your 401K plan would not generate a
realized gain/loss.  A method for accounting for realized gains/losses
resulting from a share sell-off is currently being worked on, but the
1.8.0 release has been eating up most of everyone's time.

An unrealized gain/loss can be noted on one of the reports--I'm not sure
which one.  It would be part of your Net Worth calculation, too.  1.8.0
will have more (useful) reports that 1.6.x.

For the price used, go to Tools|Price Editor.  Assuming you have set up
a quote source, click the Get Quotes button.  It will retrieve the
latest prices for you shares, and you can then run a report.  Otherwise,
you can enter the current price manually.

> 5) How are paycheck contributions to 401k plans recorded?

Very carefully! =P  What I like to do, is record the paycheck deductions
to a cash account.  Periodically, I will check my statement (online!!
makes it so much easier), and record the appropriate purchases (my 401K
shares are always 'purchased' the Monday after payday--I account
accordingly).  That way, I don't have to guess at the price or
anything.  That's just my way--others may have better ways.


-- 
Matthew Vanecek
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5,(41*2),sqrt(7056),(unpack(c,H)-2),oct(115),10);'
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For 93 million miles, there is nothing between the sun and my shadow except me.
I'm always getting in the way of something...