Problems Running Report for Previous Year

[Mike or Penny Novack]

Carlos Astrada wrote:

>I did my best to solve this one on my own, but I cannot figure out what the
>problem is. Every time I run certain reports (Income Statement, Trial
>Balance, etc), either my accounts show a $0.00 balance or most account show
>a $0.00 balance. For instance, Income Statement for previous year (dates
>selected using manual date  -- i.e. start: 1/1/2006 or Previous Year Start)
>shows a $0.00 while the Trial Balance shows SOME account balances for Assets
>but nothing for Expenses.
>
>The odd thing is that each account works perfectly, has the correct balance,
>and insofar as I've been able to scrutinize, 2007 data / reports work
>flawlessly.
>
>Is there something I am missing?
>
>  
>
Probably.
   You need to be very careful with the date ranges and it makes a 
difference if/when you "closed the books" for the previous year. 
Thus.........

a) If you are doing a "Income/Expense Statement" for 2006 but you closed 
the books on Dec 31 2006 try using Dec 30  2006 for the end date. 
Otherwise your report SHOULD show zero balances for the income/expense 
accounts (since all of these were closed to equity in the process of 
closing the books). And NOTE -- when I say "close the books" I am NOT 
referring to some built in function as that isn't working yet.

b) A "Balance Sheet" report is as of some one date, not a range of 
dates. It should be showing the STANDING ACCOUNTS that have balances, 
assets, liabilities, equity. It should NOT be showing any of the 
income/expense accounts as these are "temporary"accounts whose net 
balances get transferred to equity as a gain or loss for the period.

NOTE: Accounting software like GnuCash helps you DO accounting work 
(saves the work of doing it the old fashioned way with pen, ink, and 
paper). It doesn't tell you HOW to keep a set of books. Using a word 
processor is a lot less work than writing the story out longhand -- but 
it doesn't make you any more of an author.

Michael