Wrong balance for period (gnucash 2.2.9.4 on OS X)

Brendan Simon Brendan at BrendanSimon.com
Mon Mar 8 19:12:54 EST 2010



On 9/03/10 10:58 AM, David T. wrote:
>
>> The account is an 'asset' account.  The 'balance' is
>> correct if I drill
>> down into the account and find the date (e.g. 30-June-2006)
>> and look at
>> the balance.  However it is incorrect if I look at the
>> 'Balance
>> (Period)' field in the main account summary view.
>>
>> If my understanding is correct, then the Balance at the end
>> of the
>> accounting period, should match the balance on my statement
>> for that
>> financial period.
>>
>> Cheers, Brendan.
>>     
> Brendan--
>
> The Balance for the period (I believe) calculates the delta (change) for the time period in question (by default the current calendar year). In other words, if your expense account started the year at $1000 and is currently at $2500, the period balance would be $1500. 
>
> I could be wrong, but that's *my* understanding.
>
> David
>
>   

That's possibly what it does, but it doesn't seem like the right thing
to do.  Balance means 'balance' ... doesn't it ??  It means 'value or
amount remaining in an account at a particular point it time' ...
doesn't it ??

I thought that 'Total (Period)' is more likely to provide the delta from
start of period to end of period.
I have all 4 fields enabled in my accounts summary, and none of them
give the correct result for a balance at the end of the accounting period :(

What's the difference between 'Total' and 'Balance' ??
What's the difference between 'Total (Period)' and 'Balance (Period)' ??

Thanks,
Brendan.



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