Balance sheet unrealized losses

[whwtan]

On 4/11/2013 3:00 AM, Paul Nadolny wrote:
> Lets say I have a total balance sheet asset of MZN 30.000,00 at the end of
> last year and at the end of this year the total balance sheet asset is MZN
> 20.000,00. So the overall value of my operation has lost MZN 10.000,00.
> During the year the USD assets have lost value from drop in currency
> exchange rates. I think that this is called "unrealized loss" because if
> the exchange rate of USD goes up again, the USD assets that are in the bank
> will give me more MZN. But is it possible to calculate the difference? I
> checked all the reports but can't see anything that helps.
The balance sheet tells you where you "stand" right now. The report 
which tells you what happened in between is the Income Statement.
So these two reports work hand in hand.

Based on your example, you have a balance sheet last year with MZN 30k, 
this year it is MZN 20k.
Somewhere between this year, you have wound up with MZN 10k which left 
your balance sheet.

If you do suspect it is your unrealised loss which is making up the 
missing 10k, it is because the default report for Income Statement 
leaves out your trading account.
All you need to do is head into your Income Statement report options 
(you do that after you select the report), select the Accounts tab.
One of the un-highlighted will be your trading account. Once you select 
it "with children" and show all exchange rates in the "Commodities" tab 
they will appear. [Yes this is definitely a user interface weakness of 
Gnucash. It is un-intuitive]
You should see a Trading Account and it will show a loss of 10k.

>
> Who know's maybe this is not even important. What do you think?
> Paul
The balance sheet is basically a snapshot of how you look right now and 
the income statement tells you how you get there from the previous 
balance sheet.
It is completely reasonable for you to wonder why you have 10k less, 
that is why you are doing your accounts in the first place. (in addition 
to tax reporting) You want to be able to answer to yourself why it is 
10k less so you can know where you stand and what to do next.

The key thing about the balance sheet is that it also "balances" your 
Assets are going to be balanced with your Liabilities and Equity.
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Nov 2, 2013 at 8:32 PM, Ian K <ik522000 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Paul - Glad using trading accounts has hepled.
>>
>> Is MZN the local currency in GnuCash? If so that might explain the trading
>> gains.
>> If the MZN has devalued, then MZN assets have lost money, but that won't
>> show as a trading loss, as it's the local currency.
>> However if you have foreign assets E.g. USD, then the value of those will
>> have appreciated in MZN terms which would show up as a trading gain.
>>
>> It depends which way round you are working, if you see what I mean...
>>
>> Otherwise without knowing exactly what you're doing I'm not sure!
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> View this message in context:
>> http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/Balance-sheet-unrealized-losses-tp4665094p4665158.html
>> Sent from the GnuCash - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>> _______________________________________________
>> gnucash-user mailing list
>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>> -----
>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>>
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> -----
> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>
>