Balance Sheet

[Doug Laidlaw]

As a non-accountant myself, I see where you are coming from.  Your balance 
sheet should list your assets at their current values.  I don't think that an 
accountant sees it quite the same way, and GnuCash is built on accounting 
principles.

As I understand it, the Balance Sheet lists the values of your assets as set 
out in each one's Ledger Account.

At balance date, a retailer transfers his opening stock to Cost of Goods Sold 
at their opening value, then does the reverse with closing stock as valued at 
the stock-take.  That makes the closing stock the opening stock for the next 
accounting period.  If he wants a balance sheet in between, he has to do a 
stock-take (unless he has a perpetual inventory system) and do the same with 
that figure.  If he still wants a balance sheet for the whole year, 
theoretically he should then pass reversing entries to put the ledger back how 
it was (at least, my text says he should.)

Your investments work exactly the same way.  The balance sheet reflects the 
figure in your stock ledger account.  If you want to show stock in the Balance 
Sheet at a more current value, you will need to pass a journal entry to change 
the ledger balance, and you would need to have a second account for the other 
half of the journal entry.

Computers have made a "what if" scenario more practical, but strictly, in the 
days of pen and paper, that was what happened.

HTH,

Doug.

On Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:15:59 am glenn bergmann wrote:
> Hi,  I am a relatively new user of gnucash.  Previously used Quicken.  I
> like gnucash much better.
>
> I have a question on the Balance Sheet.  All of the information is correct
> except for the values of my mutual funds and stock investments.  The number
> of shares is correct for each but the dollar value is wrong.  I have the
> prices for the investments correct in the "Price Editor" program.  I have
> used the "Refresh" function.
>
> The "Investment Portfolio" shows the proper values for the investments.
>
> What updates the value of my securities on the Balance Sheet?
>
> Thanks for your assistance.   Glenn
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