End of year question

[Beth Leonard]

On Mon, Jan 09, 2006 at 08:46:54PM -0800, Des Dougan wrote:
> After running with one account file for several years, I have decided,
> after keeping up with threads here, to start 2006 with a clean account
> file, bringing forward balances etc. However, I just downloaded an OFX
> file from my bank, and it contains transactions crossing the year
> boundary. What's the easiest (or most effective, rather) way of managing
> this?

For me the easiest is to un-check the transactions which are in 2006
during the OFX import, then do the book closing, then re-import the
file, this time allowing the transactions.  In my case I continue
using the same .gnucash file.  With the OFX import, it doesn't seem
to attempt to re-import transactions that have already been imported,
so I don't even have to un-check the 2005 transactions when I'm
re-importing for 2006.

In your case if you want to start fresh, un-check the 2006 transactions
when you import to your 2005.gnucash file.

I assume you're already planning to do File->Export->Export Accounts
to start up your new 2006.gnucash file.  I believe that people
have in the past written quick & dirty perl programs that will look
at your existing balances and create the initial equity transactions
for you, but at my level of paranoia I'd just run two simultaneous
copies of gnucash and enter the starting balances (as transactions
from equity) by hand.  It depends on how many accounts you have --
whether it's easier to just do it, or easier to search to find
someone else's code which may or may not work, learn it, try it,
and verify that it did what you wanted.

I hope that book-closing support is fairly high on the post-G2
priority list, and I think it is.

--Beth 
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+                             Beth Leonard                          +
+       O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave              +
+       O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?        +
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