Question re GNUcash [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

[Derek Atkins]

David,

"Wagner, David" <David.Wagner at humanservices.gov.au> writes:

> Hi WC,
>
> Thanks for the reply it was good to see a response come through.
>
> Like you I am new and I am finding my way with all of this.
>
> Good luck with the learning journey.

This is your third copy of the same message in about a day; the first
two you sent to -devel and then (finally) this third one you sent to
-user.  Normal turnaround time is about a day, give or take.  Your first
message was sent Tuesday night, so it's certainly been less than 48
hours.  So all you do by sending the same request over and over is annoy
the people you are asking for help.

> On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 8:42 PM, Wagner, David
> <David.Wagner at humanservices.gov.au<mailto:David.Wagner at humanservices.gov.au>>
> wrote:
> Hi hope you can help,
>
> I have successfully downloaded and installed GNUcash.
> It was a really nice surprise to see that the product matched the marketing .

I'm not sure why this is a surprise...

> I hope you can help with this question, we have:
>
>
> 1.       several investment properties & loans for properties.
>
> 2.       a mortgage on our home
>
> 3.       also a line of credit and a savings account.
>
> 4.       There is one credit card.
>
> Question:
> I am wondering if GNUcash has the ability to work with all of them and
> provide forecasting reports.

Generally not.  GnuCash is more about looking backwards than looking
forwards.  There are some forward-looking reports (like some of the
Budget reports), but *generally* it's only looking at what you've
already done.

> Meaning, if we use the line of credit to pay the loan payments for the
> investment properties and focus the rent, tax deductions etc on the
> mortgage.
>
>
> 1.       How long would it take for the mortgage to be paid off?
>
> 2.       How long will the line of credit last?
>
> 3.       When would we be able to borrow more funds to purchase another house?
>
> 4.       How much would be able to borrow?
>
> 5.       What would be the equity growth.
>
> Hope the answer is yes and I have missed something.

None of the reports take Scheduled Transactions into account, because
they aren't "real" until they get instantiated.  As a result, none of
the reports *can* include them because they don't really "exist" in the
Chart of Accounts.  This means that unless you run them well in advance
(you can run them up to a year ahead of time), there is no way to report
on future events.  The alternative would be augmenting reports with a
way to provide "trial SX instantiation".  That doesn't exist today so
you would have to implement it.  (The fact that you sent two message to
gnucash-devel implies to me that you're willing to implement!).  So
patches are always welcome!

I hope this helps,

> David Wagner
> Mobile: 0477-310-434

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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