GNU cash 2.4.11 trial balance bug?

[David T.]

Michael,

I just checked the options for the Trial Balance report. There *is* a start date of sorts; it is, however, “Start of Adjusting/Closing”, and it appears in the same location on the report options as the start date of other reports, so it might be easy to assume that this is setting up a starting point for the report coverage. 

I do not know what the phrase actually means, however, and the documentation doesn’t offer any explanations about what this setting actually does. I suspect it has something to do with the settings on other tabs that identify the adjusting and closing entries, although I also don’t know what those settings might do either. (For what it’s worth, these are all probably part of why nobody mistakes me for a real accountant).

I suspect these options are part of the reason for user confusion.

David

On Mar 15, 2015, at 3:57 PM, Mike or Penny Novack <stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com> wrote:

> 
>> Although it is possible to set the date options in the Trial Balance report, experiments suggest that the start date is always the start of the year before the report date you have chosen.
> 
> Frankly, I don't understand this "start date" business. Of course gnucash sometimes uses unfamiliar names for reports, but the "trial balance" I remember from the days of pen and ink on paper was a "snapshot" of the state of the ledger at some point in time. In other words, like a Balance Sheet report (just the "standing" ledger accounts at some point in time). Thus an effective date, but no "start date".
> 
> The old pen and ink on paper process, you did a trial balance to make sure you had no "out of balance" errors before closing the books (immediately after closing the books a Balance Sheet report is equivalent to a "trial balance" since all the temporary accounts should have zero balances). Also done more frequently to pick up any errors since the last time done. Doing it by hand, errors were common, and all sorts of tricks to find the offending entry based on the amount by which the trail balance was out of balance.
> 
> I haven't used the report since I can't see what for; the computer will not make the sort of mistake the trial balance was used to detect. Maybe somebody who is using this report could explain what they are doing with it.
> 
> Michael D Novack
> 
> -- 
> There is no possibility of social justice on a dead planet except the equality of the grave.
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