new user of Gnucash - questions

[Diann]

Derek  Again, thank you for responding.  In the past we've used PCLaw for
Attorneys, and another accounting program prior to that.  PCLaw for Attorney
program especially requires, after reconciliation, that each month be
closed.  The end-of-year is exactly as you said and was performed after our
accountant had given the end of year journal entries to me for the
Income-Expense-Equity end of year accounting.   The end of year function
could not be completed if the end of month had not been performed.  

I do not necessarily need to perform end of month functions, but according
to our accountant, even with computing, I do need to make the end of year
journal entries and then close out the year before continuing on into the
new year.

How would this work with Gnucash?  If this is not necessary, would you
please explain that to me? And why?  Thanks.

Diann I. Hayes
Legal Assistant
Horne Law Firm, PLLC
2315 Market Street
Wilmington, NC 28403
Tel:  910.254.7901   Fax: 910.254.7903
 
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-----Original Message-----
From: Derek Atkins [mailto:warlord at MIT.EDU] 
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2011 9:37 AM
To: Diann
Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
Subject: Re: new user of Gnucash - questions

Hi,

"Diann" <dhayes at hornelaw.us> writes:

> Thank you for your response.  More questions:  Is there a way to close a
> month?  And, at year's end, how would one perform "end of year" accounting
> to close out the current year?   

It depends what you actually mean by "close a month".  There is the
"Close Books" tool available, but all it does is zeroize your Income and
Expense accounts by creating a balancing transaction into Equity.  It
does not protect your data from future editing.  Also, many reports
don't (yet) know to ignore these closing transactions, so doing it every
month might cause some reports to fail to operate.

So let me ask you, to what purpose do you feel you need to "close the
books"?  What are you attempting to accomplish?  It made sense when "the
books" were literal books of paper.  But in the computer age it makes a
little less sense.

If you're looking to make a read-only copy...  Write it to a CD-ROM.  :)

> Diann I. Hayes
> Legal Assistant
> Horne Law Firm, PLLC
> 2315 Market Street
> Wilmington, NC 28403
> Tel:  910.254.7901   Fax: 910.254.7903

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-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available