Reconcile Mutual Fund and Subaccounts

[John Ralls]

> On Oct 24, 2015, at 8:04 AM, David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> David T.,
> 
> Search the "Rounding in the Price DB" thread in the developer maillist for
> 'Reconcile' and read John Ralls' August 19 comment.  (I don't know how to
> generate a link into the middle of a thread in GMail.)
> 
> He points out that each sub-account would need to be reconciled in it's own
> currency, which, for securities, is the underlying stock.  The reconcile
> code does not currently support mixed currencies.
> 
> Since we expect to view the value of each security in the currency of the
> brokerage account, that means finding the price for each security on the
> reconcile date, and probably following the general form that brokerage
> statements use with a separate section to show values as of the reconcile
> date.
> 

Viewing the value of an investment is completely disjoint to reconciling. In most cases other than certain investment banks (who are unlikely to be using GnuCash!) it’s also completely disjoint to accounting for the investment. For everyone besides  those banks, everything is carried on ones books at the price it’s purchased at until it’s sold.

GnuCash uses the price database to find market prices for viewing the market value of investments on the Accounts page and in reports. Your broker does something similar on your statement. But every brokerage account I’ve ever had also lists every investment and the number of shares/units/whatever held, and *that* is what you should reconcile to. The better reports also show the basis, or book value, as well as the current market value. If they do it’s in your interest to make sure that the book value matches your carrying value shown on the portfolio/advanced portfolio reports, because that’s what you’ll have to report to the tax man when you sell the investment.

Regards,
John Ralls