Newbie Q - Buying and Selling Capital Assets without keeping track of unrealized Gain or Loss

[Suresh Bazaj]

Hello,

 

            The procedure described in Chapter 9 (Capital Gains) is quite
elaborate. I only want to record the cost (buying price), sale price and
gain or loss on the Capital assets. So, I did the following that seems to
work:

 

1.     Created an entry under Fixed Assets (call it Degas to match the
example name in the User Guide). It was bought in the previous year (when I
did not use GNUcash), so I marked it as Opening Balance in the Transfer
column and entered the cost ($5,000) in the "Increase" Column.

 

2.     Added an entry on the sale date under Assets:Degas with the sales
proceeds ($4,500) going to the checking account in Transfer column and the
sale price in the "Decrease" Column. This leaves a balance of $500.

 

3.     Added another entry on the sale date under Assets:Degas for the
balance $500 going to Income: LT Capital/Gain loss and the balance $500 in
Decrease column.

 

These three transactions Zero out the Assets:Degas, added the sales proceeds
to checking account and the $500 loss shows as a loss (red J) in thr LT
Capital Gain column. 

 

I think it all works. Just looking for confirmation from expert GNUcash
users to make sure that it won't bite me later for something that I have not
thought through.

 

Thanks,

 

Suresh