account organization

[Derek Atkins]

Andrew Pimlott <gnucash-user at andrew.pimlott.net> writes:

>     The first is more logical, but the second is convenient for
>     operations like reconcile and reports.  In this example, the
>     first advantage is perhaps weak, but it weighs heavier when you
>     have, say, money market and stock accounts at multiple
>     investment brokerages.
> 
>     I'm know you could do this either way, but I'm wondering which
>     is more popular.

I use the second method (Bank:AcctType), but there is no particular
reason I chose that method.

> 2.  How do you handle the "opening balance" of a long-standing
>     account for which you may enter old transactions into GNUCash?
>     Ie, say you enter the opening balance as $100 at T1, then decide
>     to enter a transaction of $50 at T2<T1.  The balance will now be
>     $150 instead of $100.  The only solution appears to be moving
>     the opening balance every time old transactions are entered,
>     which would be a pain if you like to enter old statements
>     piecemeal.

By definition an "opening balance" means "I don't have any
transactions prior to this date".  It's used by GAP to cross
Accounting Period boundaries.

If you are going to enter transactions prior to the "opening balance"
then by definition that is not your opening balance.  Basically,
"don't do that!"

>     It seems that storing the opening balance as account metadata
>     would solve the problem, as an opening balance is really an
>     assertion that the account has some balance at some time, not a
>     transaction that occurs at one time.  Has anyone considered
>     doing it this way?  Is there a standard accounting practice for
>     this problem?

Negative.  Opening Balances have a very concise meaning in GAP, and
storing them as account metadata would violate that meaning.  When you
"close the books" at the end of the period you wind up running the
opening balances in reverse....

So, when you are entering transactions, you must choose a start date.
Even if you have transactions that exist prior to that start date,
by choosing the start date you are effectively ignoring those prior
transactions and lumping them all into the opening balance.

> Thanks for your ideas,
> Andrew

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available