two instances of gnucash?

[andy thomas]

On Tue, 9 Nov 2004, Maf. King wrote:

> On Tuesday 09 Nov 2004 06:19, andy thomas wrote:
>
> > Out of interest, what is the "official" gnucash way to close out accounts
> > at the end of an accounting year and then begin another year's accounts,
> > carrying over the same account tree and balances?
> >
>
> Errrm, there isn't one.  This crops up on the list every so often, and the
> world seems to have two halves - those that don't close out, so that the
> reports can show multiple years of data (or just current year depending on
> settings), and those that want to close out, to keep things tidy, to keep
> data files smaller, because it feels "right" (maybe that is a "UK"-thing?)

I thought it was standard accounting practice worldwide do accounts on, at
most, a yearly basis, as accounts need to be drawn up & presented at
AGM's, sent to government agencies dealing with registered copmpanies, etc?
Some accounts I have seen in some places have been done on a quarterly
basis.

> > As far as I can see, this can all be done manually but I'm not aware of
> > any neat facililty within gnucash to do this and I'm not sure copying the
> > XML files to a new set and editing out last year's transactions, etc is
> > the best way.
>
>
> What you can do is something like file -> export -> export accounts, which
> will give you an empty account tree.  You just then manually go through and
> put in loads of transactions to equity:opening balances  for all your
> accounts which need to carry a value forward ( probably just asset and
> liability accounts, IIUC, the whole point is that income & expesnes start
> from 0).

That's my understanding too, so I'll just start with an empty duplicate
tree and carry forward bank balances, etc.

> However, if you do this, you will lose all your A/P, A/R customers
> and scheduled transaction info.  IMHO, the copy XML, delete transactions is
> the only way to go.

I don't actually have any of these so this won't be a problem.

> *discalimer* I have closed out my personal accounts using the blank tree
> method several times over the years, but for that, I have only a few SXes and
> no AP, AR info.  I haven't closed out the business accounts yet, although it
> is a job i will probably have to do sometime between now and Christmas.  I
> have been putting it off, coz it seems like way too much work.  But I have
> been _thinking_ about doing it.  What I am trying to say, is that there may
> be problems I don't know about doing the "delete transactions" step.

If I start off with an empty tree and just add transactions, there
wouldn't be any need for a 'delete transaction' step? Or am I missing
something?

Andy

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Andy Thomas,
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