Year's end, file size an issue?

[Mike or Penny Novack]

David T. wrote:

>Mike--
>
>That is how I have solved the situation in the past. The main problem with this (which I implied but did not outright state in my original reply) is that there is no easy way to tell Gnucash to omit January first in reports. You have to manually change the date each time. This is not odious, but it is annoying. There is no "Previous Year Starting on January 2nd" option for the date range. And yes, you can always save the report with a January 2nd start date, but each year, you'd have to edit the date anyway.
>  
>
Well since I would almost never be running any of these reports "real 
time" have to at least edit the ending date. Having to do two dates 
instead of just one doesn't add much work.

>Additionally, the zeroing transactions completely throw off any longer-term reports, which effectively eliminates the reason why you'd keep multiple years' data in the first place--that is, to get longterm trends on different accounts.
>  
>
Not what I would find having previous years' data useful for. The totals 
I would be getting from the reports. But if somebody asked a question 
like "how much of an honorarium did we give the annual meeting speakers 
in the three previous years so I would be looking for individual 
transactions in the account for
"annual meeting expenses". Without having to open each year's books 
separately.

>So, yours is certainly a viable solution, but I still don't like it, which is why I stopped closing my books.
>  
>
My needs would be different. Because the software is showing account 
balances useful for me to be able to see at a glance whether some 
account is unusually high (or low) for the time of year, relative to the 
budget, etc. WITHOUT having to run a report (which would allow for a 
specified date range).

Yes of course, not closing books would allow for long term reports 
(Income statement since business begun) but such reports are not normal 
in accounting where reporting intervals are almost always never longer 
than a fiscal year. Note that this doesn't mean that FINAL versions of 
the reports do not cover longer periods. Thus I am reporting for a 
non-profit; standard practice is to show current period alongside 
previous period. But that's outside of what asking GnuCash to do -- 
GnuCash has produced the various reports, then they are then combined, 
edited, etc. using the accountant's favorite editor. I asked the 
accountant who prepares the final versions if I should write custom 
reports to do all that and was told "don't bother" because STILL would 
need to be edited to insert notes explaining each unusual/special item 
as well as the fixed text (like organizational standards for depreciated 
assets vs expensed, informal vs formal restrictions and reserves, etc.)

The key thing -- do it the way that serves YOUR needs.

Michael