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

[Philip Walden]

John Ralls wrote:
>> 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
Hi John

Yes I have studied  Chapter 8 intently, particularly the 8.7 Selling 
Stock section. There is no mention of the "View Lots..." screen anywhere 
in that chapter.

The 8.7 section discusses manually creating a stock sell splits, but 
There is no mention of how to specify a lot associating the sale with a buy.

So I am assuming there is no documentation documenting how to use the 
"View Lots..." screen.

After some painful experimentation I have come up with a somewhat poor 
recipe to record lots and capture capital gains. The pain/poorness comes 
from trying to translate the "proceeds", "cost basis" and "gain/loss" 
from my broker account reports into the "sell price" and "commission" in 
gnc, such that the capital gains gets recorded correctly. However, I do 
not feel that is a gnc problem.

I'd like to thank "Mike" in a previous post for the clues to figure it out.

Here is the recipe I am going to use going ahead.

1. record buy of stocks with care to get accurate cost of shares.
2. Actions > View Lots...: Select the added stock purchase record, press 
create lot.
3. record sell of same stocks. Do not follow Chapter 8.7 as it includes 
the gain/loss in the split. The split should only have the proceeds to 
the asset account, the commission, and the shares-price-sale.
4. Actions > View Lots...: Select the lot with the stocks just sold. The 
"Splits in Lot should show the selected purchase. The Splits Free should 
show the sale just created.
5. Select the sale in the Splits Free window.
6. Press the >> button to associate the Sale with the Buy.
7. Close the View Lots window.
8. An Orphaned Gain record should have bee automatically created with, 
hopefully, the correct gain or loss amount. Edit the record to direct 
the gain/loss to the appropriate short or long capital gain account.