Stock Sale

[John Ralls]

On Oct 16, 2012, at 3:30 PM, annapolishome <nshust1 at reagan.com> wrote:

> i've read all the posts on stock sales (and the documentation), but still do
> not understand (i'm not an accountant and new to gnu cash).  i don't know if
> all the info is being entered in the 'bank' account brokerage 'cash' account
> or in the actual stock/bond account.  i've tried all kinds of combinations,
> but it does not come out correctly.  the accounts are step up like this:
> 
> brokerage account (cash/bank)  where the cash is
> 
>            bonds
> 
>                 xyz bond
> 
> income
> 
>            capital gain/loss
> 
> where in these accounts should i be entering the transaction or does it have
> to be entered in multiple accounts?
> 

Assuming that you aren't tracking commissions separately and don't want to use the "Lots" facility (I don't do either), you want to enter the transaction in the bond account and use the following splits:

Memo		Account		Tot Shares	Price  Tot Buy	Tot Sell			cash/bank				10,000
		bonds:xyz bond	       100	  100		  10,000
Realized G/L    bonds:xyz bond				   100
		income:LT Cap G/L			   	     100

Gnucash will automatically put a "1" in the price column when you enter the G/L splits. You need to erase it *before you tab, arrow, or mouse out of the split* or it will mess things up. The cap entries are shown for making a profit, switch the columns for a loss.

Here's a screen shot of a completed transaction:



Regards,
John Ralls