Capital Gains Input Question

David T. sunfish62 at yahoo.com
Sun Dec 12 18:34:35 EST 2010



--- On Sat, 12/11/10, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:

> From: John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us>
> Subject: Re: Capital Gains Input Question
> To: "David T." <sunfish62 at yahoo.com>
> Cc: Fred.Bone at dial.pipex.com, gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Date: Saturday, December 11, 2010, 9:17 PM
> 
> On Dec 11, 2010, at 4:15 PM, David T. wrote:
> 
> > 
> > 
> > --- On Sat, 12/11/10, Fred Bone <Fred.Bone at dial.pipex.com>
> wrote:
> > 
> >> From: Fred Bone <Fred.Bone at dial.pipex.com>
> >> Subject: Re: Capital Gains Input Question
> >> To: "David T." <sunfish62 at yahoo.com>
> >> Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> >> Date: Saturday, December 11, 2010, 3:08 PM
> >> On 11 December 2010 at 14:39, David
> >> T. said:
> >> 
> >>> I have been trying to enter capital gains/loss
> in
> >> 2.3.17 on a Mac, and I
> >>> want to understand an interface gotcha.
> Specifically,
> >> it it Extremely
> >>> Confusing that when you want to enter the
> split lines
> >> for capital gains in
> >>> a Stock or Mutual Fund account, you can't
> enter the
> >> dollar figure for
> >>> capital gain directly in the transaction
> register for
> >> the stock. If you
> >>> try to do this, Gnucash requires **and will
> >> automatically assign** a
> >>> number of shares and a per share price--an
> action that
> >> is guaranteed to
> >>> throw your portfolio off.
> >> 
> >> Wrong. This is explained, quite well though
> perhaps not
> >> perfectly, in the 
> > 
> > Ah, well, MY problem was that I looked at Chapter
> 9--you know, that one that is titled "Capital Gains"?
> > 
> >> "Tutorial and Concepts Guide", under "Selling
> shares". I
> >> recommend 
> >> reading it.
> > 
> > This, I see now, is in Chapter 8, which is called
> Investments in the main index.
> > 
> >> 
> >>> However, Gnucash allows these splits to
> exist--it just
> >> requires you to
> >>> enter the split information from a different
> register.
> >> It seems to me that
> >>> either you should be allowed to enter a cash
> split
> >> line in a register--or
> >>> not. This "You can't do it here, but you might
> be able
> >> to do it from over
> >>> there" interface is very very very very
> confusing. 
> >> 
> >> It might be, if that were true, but it isn't.
> > 
> > Um, the example in 8.7.1 clearly shows a line (the
> 1600.00 buy line below) with 0 shares and 0 price. In MY
> copy of Gnucash (2.3.17 on Mac OS X), I cannot do this in
> the SYMBOL register. Every time I attempt to do this and tab
> or enter off the split, the dollar amount is "helpfully"
> removed from the line and a new line is added to the
> transaction for Imbalance-USD.
> > 
> > If, instead I simply enter 1600 (the dollar amount) in
> the buy column of this line, Gnucash "helpfully" provides
> 1600 shares priced at 1 each.
> > 
> > As I stated originally, this is not good.
> > 
> > I will check to see whether this is the same in
> stable; if this is new behavior in 2.3.17, then hooray! I've
> found my first bug in the development release!
> > 
> > Account           
>         Shares   
> Price    Buy    Sell
> >
> Assets:Bank             
> 3525.00     
> > Assets:Stock:SYMBOL   
> -100   
> 36.00        
> 3600.00
> > Assets:Stock:SYMBOL   
> 0    0   
> 1600.00     
> > Income:Capital
> Gains                  
> 1600.00
> >
> Expenses:Commissions             
> 75.00     
> > 
> 
> The trick is to delete the value in the price column rather
> than to zero it, and to make sure to tab or mouse (don't use
> "Enter/Return" !) to the balancing split and also delete the
> price there.

Okay, this is just downright weird. If I change the imbalance line to use the current mutual fund account, the first time, it puts in the shares and price information. If I then clear the shares and price as you advise, it clears the amount to a new Imbalance split and zeroes the mutual fund account line. If NOW I change the imbalance to the current mutual fund account, it saves the transaction correctly. I honestly don't get this.

If I ever do figure it out, I'll get back to the list.

David

> 
> No, it's not new behavior.
> No, I don't know how to fix it.
> 
> Regards,
> John Ralls
> 
> 


      


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