Need better documentation on using Lots [Was: Chapter 8 - investment accounts]

[Philip Walden]

John Ralls wrote:
>> On Sep 6, 2015, at 3:04 PM, Philip Walden <pcwalden at comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>
>> WRT the "Concepts of Lots", per the discussion below I want to use lots in my stock accounts, but the document "Lots Architecture & Implementation Overview" only talks about the concept and does not give many clues as to how one should use the View Lots... screen.
>>
>> For example, what does Scrub Account do? What does Scrub (a record) do? What does the Splits Free and Splits in Lots mean or do.
>>
>> I have experimented several times only to get confused as to what is happening and end up backing out the work for fear of going down a rat-hole and ruining my stock gain/loss reporting integrity.
>>
>> I sort of understand the concept, but how is it implemented in the View Lots... screen? I cannot find anything helpful in the tutorial.
>>
>> My particular circumstance is that I have many old stock holdings in several accounts with lot tracking done on paper. I'd like to get them into gnc if I can. So the "automatic" scrubbing and lot set up does not seem to work for me as I already have prior lot database I'd like to enter; and then it could be that I just do not understand the View Lots... screen and its nomenclature.
>>
>> Thanks in advance for any help or pointers
> AS you probably know there are a variety of strategies for grouping lots and for deciding which lot is the one you sold. GnuCash supports exactly one: A lot consists of a single buy transaction and sales are first-in, first-out. If that’s not what you want, you have to handle all of it manually and ignore the View Lots dialog.
>
> Regards,
> John Ralls
Hi John

Thanks for your swift reply. I think FIFO will work for me, but I am 
having trouble translating the "Concepts of Lots", the only 
documentation that I can locate, to the "View Lots..." screen 
functionality. For example, the screen menu button "Scrub" and what it 
does is not documented as far as I can determine.

I was hoping for some kind of tutorial/pointers about how the screen 
functions translate to the "Concepts of Lots". Maybe there isn't any?

Also, you mention a "manual" method not using the "View Lots..." screen. 
I cannot seem to find any other method, manual or otherwise, for "Lots" 
anywhere in gnc.