How to set up hierarchy for accounts? What is better?

[Karl Auer]

On Sun, 2011-03-20 at 18:38 -0500, Robin Chattopadhyay wrote:
> In fact, when I transferred an IRA from one custodian to another,
> there were no corresponding journal entries because the Description
> for the account was the only piece of information in Gnucash that
> required updating.

Hm - that means that your books do not show the date at which the change
of custodian took place.

Also, presumably you would receive a final statement from the original
custodian, and an initial statement from the new custodian. If you had
recorded the transfer, you would have recorded enough information to
reconcile the final statement from the first one, and know that the
initial statement from the second one had the correct opening balance.

Also, you can keep the fees paid to the first entity separate from the
fees paid to the second entity, likewise interest and similar.

All in all, I think just changing the description is probably not a good
idea, except perhaps in the rare case where an entity actually changes
its name.

Of course, since the concept of an "IRA custodian" is foreign to me and
I have no idea what one of those is or does, I could be completely
wrong :-)

Regards, K.

-- 
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Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer/                   +61-428-957160 (mob)

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