Customized views?

[Jack McKinney]

[LONG-  to see the meat of this question as a feature description, skip to
the "My Solution" section at the bottom]

     I wrote my own web-based accounting system a while back, and have
finally decided to switch to GnuCash (too much trouble writing new features
into my system; gnucash has features I need and other advantages as well).
     I have a need that I don't see a way to do in gnucash.  I had started
writing this in my system, but am willing to wait for gnucash to support
this (if it doesn't already).  The idea is simple, but the explanation is
complicated, so I offer three:  A short version, a long version, and a
rough specification of how I was going to implement it in my system (which
is also how I'll offer to implement it in gnucash if it isn't there).

Short Version:
     Is there a way to get gnucash to give me a report of several specific
accounts that are scattered in several places in the hierarchy?

Long Version:
     My checking account has several subaccounts: Housing, Utilities, Car,
Groceries, etc.  I get paid twice a month.  Each paycheck, I distribute a
corresponding amount to the several subaccounts, which is how I budget. I
determine these amounts once (and re-evaluate periodically). For example,
my housing budget is easy: 1/2 of my montly mortgage payment.  The car
account is trickier.  I estimate how much gas costs me per year and divide
by 24, then add my insurance payment divided by 12 (due every six months),
etc.
     My long-term/life/retirement savings is divided up into 4 pieces:
stocks, bonds, cash, and gold.  Each piece is distributed among several
different accounts within gnucash (and the real world).
     For example, some of my cash is in a subaccount of checking (in order
to ensure that my checking always maintains a minimum balance).  Some is
a subaccount of savings (minimum balance+liquidity).  Some is in CDs, and
some is in an IRA, necessarily separate from my other accounts.
     I also own stocks (an index fund).  Some money is invested from a
an IRA account, and some is a "regular" account.
     What I want to do is to create a report where I specify a list of
accounts that I want to see the balance of.  By listing all of the
accounts that represent my long-term savings, I can see how much I have
saved.  If I can specify the order (or better, the grouping) of accounts,
I can see how much is in cash, how much is in gold, etc.

My Solution:
     In my accounting system, I called this concept a "portfolio".  A
portfolio account is a "virtual" account.  It is a new account type,
in addition to asset, liability, equity, income, and expense.  It is a
new type because it is treated special:

- No portfolio account is ever allowed to participate in a transaction,
  thus no portfolio account has a balance.
- Portfolio accounts are NEVER included in standard reports (P/L, I/E, etc.).
- Subaccounts of portfolio accounts must be portfolio accounts, or a reference
  account.
- A reference account is an account which MUST have a portfolio account as
  a parent, and points to another account (which must be one of the five
  standard types).

    The idea is this:  I create a portfolio account and give it a name
such as "Permanant Savings".  I then create four portfolio subaccounts:
Cash, Gold, Stocks, Bonds.  Under each of these accounts, I would create
reference accounts to my real accounts that have the balances.  For example,
under cash, I would have a link to "Assets:Cash In Checking:Long Term Savings",
"Assets:Cash In Savings:Long Term Savings", "Assets:IRA:Savings". Thus, the
"total" of "Portfolios:Permanent Savings:Cash" is the sum of all of the
little accounts around the system.  The "Portfolios:Permanent Savings"
account's total is my total life savings.   Now, I can read the report I
mentioned off of the chart of accounts...

-- 
"If Congress had nothing to sell, then        Jack McKinney
 special interests would have nothing to buy" http://www.lorentz.com
 - Geoffrey Neale, national chair of the      jackmc at lorentz.com
 Libertarian Party, 2003                      1024D/12C23A80 4096g/CA714907
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