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

[Chris Good]

(Darn! Forgot to change subject again in last email)

> On 14 Sep 2015, at 4:17 am, Philip Walden <pcwalden at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> 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

Hi Philip,

Yes, it would be appropriate but if you just say in the bug that you intend to do this yourself, that is probably enough to stop any one else from duplicating effort.

Regards,
Chris Good