Accounting Question

[Bobby Goins]

Thanks to Derek Atkins and Dan Black for their help with the docs and 
icons.
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After I imported the QIF files from MS Money 2001 into gnucash-1.8.7, I 
had to deal with where to fit these accounts within the gnucash account 
structure.  Most the the accounts seem to fit well, however, there are 
some that didn't quite make sense to me.  

Some of the account balances are not the same in Money and gnucash.  I 
think the issues reflect the different philosophies between the two 
programs.  Primarily, the issues deal with the closing of 'old accounts' 
and the subsequent opening of 'new accounts', and how to deal with 
investment accounts such as 401(k) plans and Roth IRA accounts.  

When I imported my files, I had a 'retained earnings' account that was 
in the several hundred dollar range.  Looking through it showed 'open 
balance' items for accounts that I closed and opened.  An example would 
be the re-financing of my house.  I have an opening balance line for 
the 'old mortgage' and an opening balance line for the 'new mortgage'.
How should I reflect this in gnucash?

I also had lines within the 'retained earnings' account for a 401(k) 
account that seemed to correspond to monthly withdraws from my 
paycheck.  I would think that this should be an 'investment cash' 
account.  I receive a quarterly statement from the 401(k) manager that 
shows when and where this cash account has a withdraw to actually buy 
the mutual funds.  At that point, I historically reduced the cash 
account and increased the actual investment account.  Is this the way 
this should be reflected in gnucash?

Also, MS Money reported the 'value' of these type of accounts as the sum 
of the purchase value, unrealized losses/gains and the cash account 
value.  How would I do this in gnucash?

With nearly 5 years of data in my QIF files, making these corrections 
seems like a frightening task.