gnucash-user Digest, Vol 150, Issue 8

[Philip Walden]

Chris Good wrote:
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Mon, 07 Sep 2015 17:08:16 -0700
>> From: Philip Walden <pcwalden at comcast.net>
>> To: "gnucash-user at gnucash.org" <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
>> Subject: Re: Need better documentation on using Lots [Was: Chapter 8 -
>> 	investment accounts]
>> Message-ID: <55EE26F0.3010301 at comcast.net>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
>>
>> 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.
>>
> Hi Philip,
>
> I haven't investigated using lots for capital gains much but I came across
> this today and wonder if you've seen it?
> (Sorry if you already have)
> http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Concept_of_Lots
>
> If you'd like to put something together that I could just include in the
> GnuCash Guide, without having to change any of the content, just the
> formatting, I'd be happy to do it when I get a chance? As you've discovered,
> trying to figure out how something works can be a lot of work and I don't
> think I could add your hints in their current form.
>
> If so, please add a GnuCash bug and attach a file with the content, so it
> doesn't get lost.
>
> Even if you don't have time to go this extra step, thanks for taking the
> time to improve GnuCash!
>
> Regards,
> Chris Good
Yes, I did read the "Concept of Lots", but it contained no reference as 
to how it was implemented in GnuCash. Hence the thread I started and the 
learning process I went through.

It could take quite awhile (couple of months at most) for me to get to 
it, due some upcoming travel, but I could give it a go. Would it be 
appropriate to create the bug (enhancement) and request that it be 
assigned back to me for eventual closure?

Philp