End of year - P&L reports include the closing transaction so everything is NIL

David Ryan david at ryanit.ie
Mon Feb 18 04:37:54 EST 2013


Thanks David.  I did search for answers and got stuff from many years back but didn't see much current or definitive.  The issue as you pointed out is that anything I found is unofficial & inconclusive.

It seems strange that a pretty standard function like rolling over at year end isn't fully supported.  I know the mega transactions are posted and the accounts are cleared, but I would have thought it was pretty standard to be able to run prior years P&L reports without having to manually bodge the report. 

Having said all that, thanks to your reply I can get the reports & results I need, so I'm good for now.

Thanks,

David

Sent from my iPod

On 17 Feb 2013, at 18:47, "David T." <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> David--
> 
> Short answer: There is no problem; you've zeroed the accounts, and GnuCash is reporting that.
> 
> Longer answer: the GnuCash user base has long discussed the value and importance of creating closing transactions that follow traditional accounting practice, and you might benefit from perusing those threads in the list archives. I assure you they are voluminous and inconclusive. What it boils down to: it is not entirely necessary to close books in GnuCash, as the reports can provide the information needed for yearly summaries. Many still feel it is necessary and appropriate. 
> 
> If you choose to close books, you can do it manually (as you have) or use the Close Books menu option (under Tools), which simply creates two mega transactions that zero out all income and expense accounts to the account you choose on the date you choose. And, if you have closed your books and wish to see an accurate rendering of the Profit & Loss report (i.e. omitting the closing entry), open the report options, click on the Entries tab, and put in the description you used for your closing transaction. That should allow the report to omit that closing transaction.
> 
> HTH,
> David (T.)
> 
> On Feb 17, 2013, at 10:07 AM, David Ryan <david at ryanit.ie> wrote:
> 
>> I'm using 2.4.11 on Windows for personal (i.e. non-business transactions) for the last 15 months. I just did my 2012 year end now and it correctly zero'd all the expense & income accounts by transferring the balance as at 31DEC2012 out of the accounts. It's been a long, long time since I did accountancy properly so I couldn't quite remember where I was supposed to transfer it to. I created an account called Equity:Year End Movement and when closing out the year the balances were transferred there.
>> 
>> Here's the problem - when I run a P&L for the year I get a whole lot of zeros back for each and every account. If I run the P&L up to 30DEC I get accurate figures representing the year, but as soon as I roll it on the extra day it includes the closing transaction.
>> 
>> For example - I have a balance of €345.67 in expenses:utilities:electricity on 30DEC. The year end transaction posted -€345.67 on 31DEC and the balance came down to NIL. This is fine in one way since it shows all my balances at zero on 01JAN (which I want), but not fine since it also shows them as zero on 31DEC - which I don't want and which isn't correct.
>> 
>> Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong here? Is the problem that I transferred the balances to an Equity account? Where should they transfer to?
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> David
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