Difference between total assets and liabilities

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

On Mon, November 5, 2012 10:19 am, AlainCageda wrote:
>

>>Have you tried running reports for different times and checking to see
>>if the error changes?  Every time it changes there is at least one
>>erroneous transaction.  By checking shorter intervals you can close in
>>on a date range.  If you are very lucky, there is only one transaction,
>>and you can close in on it fairly quickly.
>>
>>David C
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Tks for this advice David. using your method I found a transaction in my
>> USD cashbox. Editing the exchage rate changed the end of the year error
>> (without fixing it). So this is at least part of the problem. But I can't
>> make out what is faulty in this transaction.

This implies, as I mentioned earlier, that you are not accounting properly
for the gain/loss of these kinds of transactions.  Let me give you an
example.

Let's say you buy EUR with USD.  The rate is 1.25.  So you spend $125 and
get €100..  Something strange happens and you need to buy back USD, but
the rate has changed to 1.3.   So you sell €50 and get $65..  This all
seems just fine, right?  But alas, you've now created money out of thin
air, leading to a balance sheet imbalance.

The issue is that you haven't accounted for the 'gain' of $2.50.  This
gain came as the result of USD -> EUR -> USD trades.  GnuCash does not
perform proper double-entry on these kinds of trades, unless you turn on
the trading accounts functionality.  Note that *that* introduces other
issues, so back up your data before you try that.

And this is most likely the cause of your issues, and explains why
changing the exchange rate changes the amount of your imbalance.

Please read the docs on "selling stocks" to better understand, because in
*this* case your secondary currency needs to be treated just like a stock.

Good luck,

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-derek
-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant