Cash Book

Mike or Penny Novack stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com
Wed Dec 17 08:56:10 EST 2014


>>One further question; in gnucash the opening  balance on the balance
>>sheet reflects the opening balance when the books were originally
>>started and is continuously carried forward.  In my country auditors
>>require that books are ended off every financial year  and that the
>>new financial year starts with the closing balance of the previous
>>year.
>>
>>    
>>
No, the Balance Sheet presents the data as of the date specified. That 
would be the original opening balance only if you didn't change the 
effective date to the date that you want. A Balance Sheet is ALWAYS as 
of some specified date.

Quite normal (here too) to report for an accounting period giving three 
reports (or five reports, will explain)

Balance Sheets for the beginning and end of the reporting period and 
Income Statement (aka Statement of Revenues aka Profit and Loss 
depending on the type of entity for which the books are kept). That's 
three reports but in an ongoing situation the Balance Sheet at the start 
would have been run as the Balance Sheet of the end of the previous period.

When I said five, for some types of entities it is normal to include 
side by side the previous period so would have the Income Statement from 
the previous period and the Balance Sheet for the start of that period.

It is NOT necessary to "close the books" to create (or at some later 
time, recreate) any of these reports.

Michael D Novack


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