eguile dev environment

[Mike Alexander]

--On April 9, 2010 9:49:56 AM +0100 Chris Dennis 
<cgdennis at btinternet.com> wrote:

>>
>> I've used it a bit and the numbers it produces seem to agree with
>> those  produced by the old balance sheet report.  It does calculate
>> them in a  rather different way.  I'm not familiar enough with
>> accounting practices  to know which is more appropriate.
>
> It works for me, but I don't do complicated things like foreign
> currencies and commodities.  And unlike the original balance sheet it
> doesn't do anything with 'unrealised gains/losses' because I don't
> know what they are.
>
> There was also some discussion about what should go on which side of
> the balance sheet -- if there's interest, there could be an option
> for different layouts.
>>
>> Perhaps I'll look into checking this in if others think it is
>> appropriate to do so.
>
> Sounds good to me.

I checked in three versions of the eguile balance sheet report today. 
The first is simply the one from the wiki page and is mainly for 
historical reference since it wouldn't work with the current GnuCash. 
The second is updated to work and to understand trading accounts, but 
otherwise largely unchanged.  The third one contains some changes which 
are more substantial.  These are described below.

The calculations performed by the eguile balance sheet report (before 
my changes) are much the same as those performed by the older balance 
sheet report with two exceptions.  The eguile one ignored income and 
expense accounts and also calculated the imbalance in the books (assets 
- (liabilities + equities + trading)) which it labeled as "retained 
earnings" or "retained loss".  I think this lumped together two things 
from the old report: unrealized gains and retained earnings/loss.  The 
old report calculates retained earnings/loss from the income and 
expense accounts.  Unrealized gains, which become irrelevant with 
trading accounts, are calculated using a formula that I don't recall 
right now.

The third checkin for the eguile balance sheet report makes two 
changes.  The sum of all the income and expense accounts is included 
and labeled as retained earnings or loss (like the old report).  The 
imbalance amount is still calculated, but is labeled as such.  It 
should be zero if trading accounts are used and will include what the 
old reports called unrealized gains otherwise.

I've checked this against the old balance sheet report for several test 
files I have, both with and without trading accounts, and it seems to 
give consistent results.  Let me know if you have any questions or 
concerns.

            Mike