Guidance on a Year-To-Year Comparison Report

[Mike or Penny Novack]

David T. wrote:

>I am interested in having a two column report that would compare amounts for two comparable periods of time. This would allow me to compare my spending in those accounts over two comparable time periods. The report would allow you to select the accounts to compare, and specify established time periods for the two columns (for example, Year-to-Year, Consecutive Quarters, First Quarter, etc.). Additionally, it might allow specification of the starting year (e.g., entering 2008 would establish a report for 2008-2009).
>
>I'd give it a shot with the new reporting modules in 2.3.17, but need help even knowing where to start.
>
>TIA,
>David
>  
>
This is how a non-profit ordinarily presents its financial statements 
(two "Statement of Revenue"s aka "Income Statement and two "Balance 
Sheets"). When I first began using GnuCash for one of the organizations 
I asked the accountant type who would help me put the reports into GAAP 
format (treasurer of the state lawyer's association non-profit) if I 
should write custom coding for Gnucash to do that he said DON'T BOTHER. 
Just give him the two income statements and two balance sheets and he 
would use his favorite editing software to prepare the final version. 
WHY? Because still need to insert annotation explaining any 
items/amounts that would appear unusual. In other words, STILL going to 
need the capabilities of a full fledged editor to insert text, etc.

This isn't ever going to be a "one size fits all" situation. Consider 
for how many jurisdictions we would need report versions if GnuCash were 
expected to be able to furnish a finished product of the financial 
reports as required by the laws of that jurisdiction. Better to produce 
just the simple standard reports and then let the user edit this data 
into the required format. And yes, GnuCash could be expanded to provide 
its own editor but there's lots of good editing apps out there so why 
reinvent the wheel.

Michael D Novack, FLMI