Balance Sheet does not total Fund Value correctly

[John Ralls]

On Mar 13, 2011, at 10:01 PM, Brendan Simon wrote:

> I have generated a Balance Sheet report and the balance/total of some
> parents account do not match what is in the accounts register.
> 
> Eg. I have the following asset accounts (for a managed fund).
> 
> + Man-OM-IP-3AHL
>    . Man-OM-IP-3AHL-Cash
>    . Man-OM-IP-3AHL-Shares (FUND)
> 
> The "Shares" account is of type Mutual Fund and has 5000 shares.  The
> shares were purchased at $1.00 and are valued at $1.0439 (as of
> 30-Jun-2010).  I have used the Price Editor to set this value for this
> date for OMIP3AHL security.
> 
> My Accounting period is set from 1-Jul-2009 to 30-Jun-2010.
> 
> In the Accounts register, the Balance and Total of the parent account
> (Man-OM-IP-3AHL) is $5,219.50  (which seems correct ... 5,000 x $1.0439
> = $5,219.50)
> 
> However, my Balance Sheet report has the following.
> 
>    MyCompany Balance Sheet 2010-06-30
> 
>    Man-OM-IP-3AHL                         5,000 OMIP3AHL    $5,000.00
>        Man-OM-IP-3AHL-Shares                  5,000 OMIP3AHL    $5,000.00
>        Man-OM-IP-3AHL-Cash                  $0.00                    
>    Total Man-OM-IP-3AHL                         $5,000.00
> 
> As you can see the balances/total are incorrect.  They should be
> $5,219.50 (the same as the accounts register).
> 
> Is this a bug ... or a something I haven't configured for reports perhaps ??
> 
> I'm using GnuCash 2.4.3 on OS X 10.6.6 (Intel)

The accounting value of your fund stays at the purchase price until you actually sell it, and that's what's reflected in the Balance Sheet. The display on the accounts tree reflects the latest price in the price database because people like to see their current market net worth. The Advanced Portfolio report will show you market value and unrealized gains and losses.

Regards,
John Ralls