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

[Philip Walden]

John Ralls wrote:
>> On Sep 7, 2015, at 5:08 PM, Philip Walden <pcwalden at comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>> 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.
> Philip,
>
> I meant to study Chapter 8 to understand how to do it manually. There is no documentation on the View Lots dialog box. What’s more, I’ve tried it a few times and found that it works well in simple cases and less well when there are overlapping buys and sells — but I’ve only tried it using the “Scrub Lots” button which does your steps 5 & 6 automatically. Since you seem to have worked out a semi-automatic approach I suggest that you create a fake book and test it out in the scenarios you expect. If it works consistently for you, great!
>
> Chapter 8.7 doesn’t include the gain in the split, it creates a new split pair in the transaction. If you prefer a separate transaction that’s OK, just create the splits as 8.7 explains in a new transaction instead of in the sell one.
>
> Regards,
> John Ralls
Thanks John,

Looks like I can do what I need by avoiding the "Scrub" button 
automation and just use the ">>" and "<<"" buttons to select sale 
transactions to a specific Lot-Buy. One buy per lot.

When I use the above method, a separate Gain is recorded automatically. 
That is why I do not add one to the split within the sale.

Again, thanks for your patience.