Splitting a file into years

[Doug Laidlaw]

On Wed, 18 Apr 2007 12:27:16 pm David T. wrote:
> This is something of an aside, but can anyone tell me exactly what steps an
> accountant would take to split a file by year? I know that one is supposed
> to use Equity accounts to represent the balances on January 1, but what
> does one do about unreconciled transactions? Do they carry over, and how do
> they figure into the Opening Balance transaction?
>
> With expense accounts, does one simply clear these out (thereby 'resetting'
> the expense balance)?
>
> What about with Stock assets? Which transactions would one retain in these
> accounts? I have pondered in the past about how to calculate cost basis for
> stocks if older transactions get removed, and it seems to me rather
> important from a tax-reporting perspective to retain this information. If
> some transactions are retained (such as those that add or remove shares),
> however, they must be altered in some principled manner to ensure that
> current account balances remain accurate. How?
>
> I have used some sort of computerized banking software for 18 years
> (Quicken and now GnuCash), and my account structure has evolved into a
> rather complex beast with transactions going back many years. With loans,
> mortgages, multiple investment accounts, open and closed credit accounts,
> tax-free spending accounts (both for myself and my spouse), and expense
> accounts covering every aspect of my personal life and my independent
> business, I would really like to be able to know how to split out older
> portions of the file in a principled way.
>
> If I could grok the process, perhaps I could figure out how to automate
> it...
>
> David
>
> --- Derek Atkins <warlord at MIT.EDU> wrote:
> > Quoting Carl Wagner <cwagster at gmail.com>:
> > > I have a file I started on 1/1/2006 to the present.  I would to split
> > > this file into two files one for 2006 and the other for 2007. Is this
> > > possible to do?  If so,  could you please send me to a How to section.
> >
> > What I do is just:
> >
> >   cp 2006 2007
> >
> > And then leave all the old data in there.   GnuCash itself does not have
> > a tool to do what you want.  Jonathan Kamens sent a perl script to
> > the list (either this of -devel, I forget) a few years ago which can
> > be used to strip out some transactions, but I dont know if it
> > will properly keep your books balanced.
> >
> > -derek
> > --
> >        Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
> >        Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
> >        URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
> >        warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available
> >
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The program gives you the option of exporting the Account Hierarchy.  I simply 
called the export 2007-08, printed out a Balance Sheet, and entered the 
balances in the new accounts as opening balances.  Since I am not using 
Gnucash for business, I didn't worry about end-of-year procedures, but these 
should be carried out first.  According to the book, they will reduce all 
Revenue accounts to nil.

One question:  I tried this some time ago, and the current asset and liability 
balances were exported as well, but not recently.  Or did I imagine that?

Doug.

-- 
Perhaps the most important thing we give each other is our attention.
   -- Dr R. N. Remen.