What's your favorite year end method?

Beth Leonard beth at oasis.slimy.com
Sun Dec 16 20:47:52 EST 2007


On Sun, Dec 16, 2007 at 01:51:00PM -0600, John Griessen wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> How do you separate years so the file size stays manageable
> and so you accounts show a year to date balance?
> 

I'd say the two most commonly used methods are:
1) Start over every year - Use File->Export->Export Accounts
to export just the account hierarchy.  Then start fresh
with transactions from equity for all your assets and liabilities.
This does not keep the business open invoices, etc. going forward.

2) Archive the file as-is at the end of the year (save it
aside and call it money2007.gnucash.  Keep using the current
file going forward, but add a transaction dated December 31st
to every income and expense account to equity.  (I have mine
set up as Equity:2007:Income and Equity:2007:Expenses)  If necessary,
shift a real transaction or two to December 30th so it's easy
to zero out everything.  Keep your assets, liabilities, and
invoices as they are.

I prefer method 2, but if the number of transactions became too
large for me to wait through at startup, I may use method 1 every
5-10 years.  So far my compute power has kept up with my increased
number of transactions in the file.  When I do year to year reports,
I always set the dates to be from January 1st through December 30th,
and I avoid transactions made on December 31st.

I like method 2 because in the case of a billing dispute with the
doctor, I can still easily search on "Dr. Foster" and get a record
of transactions going back everal years without having to open up my
archived files.

--Beth
Beth Leonard
http://www.LeonardFamilyVideos.com


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