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

[John Ralls]

> On Sep 7, 2015, at 9:52 AM, Philip Walden <pcwalden at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> 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.
> 
> _

Philip,

The original subject of the thread you hijacked was “Chapter 8 - Investment accounts”. Have you studied that chapter?

Chapter 8 of the guide is really titled “Investments”, and the English version can be read online at http://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.6/C/gnucash-guide/chapter_invest.html.

Regards,
John Ralls