Cash Basis Report Options

[Alex Aycinena]

>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Derek Atkins <warlord at mit.edu>
> To: Shawn McGowan <shwnmcgowan at gmail.com>
> Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 10:23:46 -0500
> Subject: Re: Cash Basis Report Options
> "Shawn McGowan" <shwnmcgowan at gmail.com> writes:
>
> > To the Gnu Group,
> >
> >
> >
> > Does GnuCash offer cash basis and accrual basis options for its reports?
>
> Sure -- provided you don't use any of the invoicing features.
> If you invoice then by definition it's an accrual.
>
> > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>
> -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
>
>
>
>
The true answer is that gnucash, like many accounting systems, can do
either cash basis or accrual basis accounting or even both at the same
time. It simply depends on how you use it. For example, you can do all your
accounting on a cash basis except for the fact that you use AR.  So at year
end your standard statements would be a mixture of the two. If you wanted
to generate a set of statements on the cash basis, say for tax reporting
purposes, you enter a set of adjusting entries on the last day of the year
that re-states things to a cash basis and a reversing set of entries on the
first day of the next year to get you back to your normal mixed mode. How
difficult it is to figure out those adjusting entries depends on the
particulars of each case. You could consult an accounting book for further
information.

Alex