Setting Cash vs Accrual Method

[R. Victor Klassen]

Yes, we also came from Quickbooks, and were using cash-based.   [In Canada there are tax benefits to using cashed based if you are farming].   Fortunately for us, we have relatively few transactions that cross the year boundary and therefore the difference is small.   I got frustrated with Quickbooks since it wouldn’t let me tailor the reports to tell me what I wanted - not without buying the much more expensive version.   With GnuCash there’s at least the theory that if it doesn’t do what I want I can tinker under the hood.  ;-)

I don’t know how hard making cash-based functionality a reporting option would be; from the discussion on this thread out of Europe, it may be becoming more important.

As far as doing a keyword search, you could use Google, since the manual is online.  Just add -site:gnucash.org to your search.

On Feb 15, 2014, at 10:56 PM, Brenda Reed <brendareed123 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I was using Quickbooks and all the reports were accrual by default but
> could be set to cash basis and it was a nice feature. My husband is a
> database programmer and I do the books. We are a sole proprietor.
> 
> On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 11:15 AM, Mike or Penny Novack <
> stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com> wrote:
> 
>> Brenda Reed wrote:
>> 
>> Where would one set the accounting method for reporting cash or accrual? I
>>> just cruised through the manual and could not find it. Also, is there a
>>> way
>>> to do a keyword search on the whole manual and guide?
>>> 
>>> 
>> Accounting on the "cash" basis or accounting on the "accrual" basis isn't
>> the sort of thing that would be a "setting" in gnucash or any other
>> accounting program.
>> 
>> If you are new to accounting/bookkeeping first try to understand what
>> "cash basis" means because it is conceptually simpler. But if you are
>> required to use the accrual basis or prefer to use the accrual basis you'll
>> need to learn that too. Are these personal books or books for a business?
>> 
>> Michael
>> 
>> 
>> 
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