End of year question

[Des Dougan]

Hi Beth,

Very many thanks for your reply. 

On Mon, 2006-01-09 at 21:34 -0800, Beth Leonard wrote:
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> -----
> 
> 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.

So simple when you know how. It never occurred to me that I could do
that... I was having visions of editing the .ofx file, which,
thankfully, I won't have to do. 

> 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.

Yes, I am planning to do just that (File->Export, etc.). One of the
reasons for this is that I've not been using the Equity account, as I
didn't set myself up correctly initially - I've been transferring from
Current Assets/Checking Account to Cash/ATM Withdrawal (to family bank
a/c). So I need to manage that transition as part of this process.

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

>From previous threads here, it would seem so. How do you, personally, do
book closing if you continue to use the same file, BTW?

Thanks again,

Des
-- 

Des Dougan, Principal
Dougan Consulting Group

Ph: 604-980-2848       Email: des at DouganConsulting dot com     

        www.DouganConsulting.com

Design - Implementation - Support