How to add interest up to today's date?

[Mike or Penny Novack]

John Bibby wrote:

>I am surprised if it cannot be automated - as any spreadsheet programme
>could calculate it using the parameter
>
>Today'sDate - LastBalanceDate
>
>or similar.
>
>With GnuCash I have no conception of where I should store the rate of
>interest, yet it is about the most important parameter for tracking cash
>investments.
>
>Thanks for any further help.
>
>JOHN B
>
>  
>
Confusion about the software?

Gnucash is accounting/bookkeeping software. There are all sorts of other 
financial planning software packages. What accounting/bookkeeping 
software is supposed to be doing is recording ACTUAL financial transactions.

Understand? If I want software that will run a projection for an 
investment plan (*), etc. then that's what I want to use, not a 
bookkeeping program.

There are lots of other things gnucash doesn't do/isn't. It's not a 
"point of sales" system, not an "inventory system", etc.

Michael D Novack, FLMI

*  For example, suppose I wanted to calculate an "endowment" --- at some 
assumed rate of interest, what would be the regular "rents" (periodic 
investments) needed for the fund to be at some particular target value 
at some specified time in the future. There are programs to do that (I 
have even written some, what I used to do for a living) but that is NOT 
bookkeeping.