Trial balance failed!

Derek Atkins warlord at MIT.EDU
Mon Jan 21 09:46:41 EST 2008 

Hi,

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mianomurage at zinkdigital.com writes:

> Hi Derek,
> I still have a problem with my gnucash trial balance. Well, I have had several foreign exchange transactions so Exactly what amount should I fill in the splits.
> I have tried copying my gnu file then from the price editor I have changed all the different exchange rates into one rate but still the trial balance is off. The Dr. side exceeds the Cr. side. There is an amount under "unrealized gains" but it's still not enough to off set the imbalance. 
> I really do not understand why the "unrealised gains" yet the exchange rate is the same!

Exactly what amount you should fill in the splits is a factor of the
exchange rate at the time of the aquisition and the rate at the time
of "sale".

The trial balance probably doesn't care about the entries in the price
editor, I don't think.  Honestly I've never even looked at the T-B
report.  I just use the real Balance Sheet.

-derek

> Derek Atkins wrote:
>> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> Quoting Miano <mianomurage at zinkdigital.com>:
>> 
>>>
>>> My trial balance still in imbalance. I have traced the imbalance on a
>>> transaction involving Foreign currencies. Any way to fix this?
>> 
>> Add proper Gain/Loss splits to the sale of the foreign currency.
>> 
>> -derek
>> 
>>> Fred Bone wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On 20 Jun 2007 at 20:08, Daniel said:
>>>>
>>>>> Oh, here is another thought: I deal with more than one currency. Could
>>>>> that be the problem? This this what I'm thinking:
>>>>>
>>>>> 1) On day one I have the assets:
>>>>>     USD Bank account:  $2000
>>>>>     CAD Bank account:  $2000
>>>>> 2) I transfer $1000 USD to Canada at a rate of $1 US = $1.30 CAD.
>>>>>     USD Bank account:  $1000
>>>>>     CAD Bank account:  $3300
>>>>> 3) The Canadian dollar appreciates to $1 US = $1.10 CAD. If I calculate
>>>>> my
>>>>> total assets in USD, some money will have vanished. If I calculate my
>>>>> total assets in CAD, some money will have appeared out of nowhere.
>>>>>
>>>>> If I have income and expenses in more than one currency, I guess
>>>>> currency fluctuations could ruin the trial balance.
>>>>>
>>>>> Do you think this might be the problem?
>>>>
>>>> It might, but based on my experiments I don't think it is.
>>>>
>>>> Here's what I tried:
>>>>
>>>> 1. Create new file: minimal structure (just accept defaults).
>>>> 2. Credit Assets:Cash:Cash in Wallet with GBP1000 from Equity:Opening
>>>> Balances
>>>> 3. Create account Assets:Cash:Cash in Wallet:Euro
>>>> 4. Credit the EUR account with EUR200 from the GBP account, accepting
>>>> the
>>>> default exchange rate of GBP1=EUR1.515152; this showed as GBP132 there
>>>> 5. Trial Balance shows (omitting blank entries)
>>>>   Cash in Wallet    £868
>>>>   Euros             £132
>>>>   Opening Balances          £1000
>>>>                    £1000    £1000
>>>> So far so good.
>>>>
>>>> 6. In Price Editor, update the rate to EUR1=GBP0.7
>>>> 7. Refresh Trial Balance:
>>>>   Cash in Wallet    £868
>>>>   Euros             £140
>>>>   Opening Balances          £1000
>>>>                    £1008    £1008
>>>> and there's also a line "Unrealized Gains" with nothing against it.
>>>> Note that the Credit column (on the right) doesn't add up.
>>>>
>>>> 8. In Price Editor, update the rate to EUR1=GBP0.5
>>>> 9. Refresh Trial Balance:
>>>>   Cash in Wallet    £868
>>>>   Euro              £100
>>>>   Opening Balance           £1000
>>>>   Unrealized Gains   £32
>>>>                    £1000    £1000
>>>> Now the columns add up.
>>>> They still balance though, whether the exchange rate goes up or down. In
>>>> the "up" situation, I think it's just omitted £8 in the "Credit" column
>>>> for "Unrealized Gains".
>>>>
>>>> Do you have any Stock accounts in which you have done a negative Stock
>>>> Split? This was the problem I reported a couple of days ago. I have now
>>>> reproduced it in a two-transaction scenario (buy some stock, do a
>>>> negative split; result: trial balance failure).
>>>>
>>>> Clearly the Trial Balance report code has bugs. I'm not in a position to
>>>> find them, much less fix them.
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
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>>>
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>>        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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> Quoted from: 
> http://www.nabble.com/Trial-balance-failed%21-tp11217243p13972804.html
>
>
>

-- 
       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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