How difficult is it (really) to reorganize a Chart-of-Accounts after the fact?

[Wm]

Thu, 1 Jan 2015 10:03:47 
<CAF_dkJA+_SfhDTwJN5Yt6y9LObK8LHAGCuX_g2WiOFFsGWnX+w at mail.gmail.com> 
Patrick Doyle <wpdster at gmail.com>

>But what happens if, sometime in March or so, after I've used GNUCash
>for a while, I decide that I really should have organized my chart of
>accounts slightly (or even significantly) differently?

Patrick, I've an idea that might or might not help.

create an account called Assets:test
when creating this account use the Opening Balance tab to enter a 
distinctive amount like 123 or 777 or 1000000, anything that you'll 
notice, you'll see gnc puts the other leg in Equity by default, leave 
that.

produce a balance sheet (the eguile one is more useful for this 
exercise), have a look at it and get a feel for where your number is, if 
you produce a 2 column balance sheet you'll have Assets on the left and 
Equity on the right.

Now Edit the Asset account (not the transactions, the account itself) on 
the bottom left under Account Type you'll see the things you can change 
the account to. Does the list make sense?  Change the Account Type to 
Liability and refresh your balance sheet again. See where your number 
has gone?

Now create an account called Income:testZ and do a similar exercise. 
Does that make things any clearer?

-- 
Wm...