Customized views?

[James Leone]

jackmc-gnucash at lorentz.com wrote:

>[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).
>  
>
First let me say that writing your own program is impressive, and 
believe it or not, if you adopted the GPL for your application and made 
it available for download at Sourceforge.net, you may find additional 
people helping you maintain and develop the application.

Anyway, I encourage you to do that.

>     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?
>  
>
You basically want a way to sort like accounts


>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,
>
Just some advice. Do what you want.... :-)

(Side note: The accounting method described above is much like 
governmental accounting, rules set in the USA by www.gasb.org)

Can you set a budget, not as an additional accounts or sub accounts, but 
as a different trial balance using the same account numbers? My guess is 
that this will save you time and complication.

You can calculate how much you are within budget by comparing the two 
trial balances. Saves a lot of entries. Part 2 below.


> 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.
>
Ok, just some light information as to how CPA's will do this.  Albeit 
for a different reason than yours, CPA's will group like accounts on 
"Lead Sheets" when we go out on audit. A lead sheet will list all of the 
accounts in a category. Some reports include

For example, we will call the group of cash accounts called "A."

All of the existing software that I have seen, groups like accouunts 
outside of the account number structure.  Instead a means to group the 
accounts into categories is provided. The end user usually creates lead 
sheet group identities, i.e. "A" for cash.

Now just because we group all of our cash accounts together, does not 
mean you can't group accounts that you want to show up on the same 
report together.

>     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:
>
Yes this what CPA's call lead sheets.

Another way to accomplish a grouping, is to use the account number 
structure to sort like accounts.

100.111   Cash
100.222   Cash - Life Savings Portfolio
110.111   Savings
110.222   Savings - Life Savings Portfolio


Run report by .222 (Life Savings) only shows:

100.222   Cash - Life Savings Portfolio
110.222   Savings - Life Savings Portfolio

>
>- 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...
>  
>

Yes, a lead sheet.    :-)

James Leone