Chapter 8 - investment accounts

David T. sunfish62 at yahoo.com
Thu Nov 10 22:14:05 EST 2016


> On Nov 11, 2016, at 4:18 AM, Jamestk <davidjamestk at hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> Thanks for the reply David, replies as follows in bold.
> 
> 
> GnuCash - User mailing list wrote
>> There was a discussion about how GnuCash handles multiple splits in a
>> register (which appears to be the debate you mention). This resulted in a
>> note being added to the tutorial at 4.3 to explain that situation. 
>> As to the question of how to calculate and record gains, every discussion
>> I have seen over the years has suggested that different users have
>> different needs and solutions. Personally, I prefer to have a separate
>> transaction for the gain, and I am satisfied with the scrub lots feature
>> for calculating that gain. 
> *
>> Thanks, yes, it looks like the tutorial has been updated from 9.1 making
>> my old links redundant.
> *
>> 
>> The docs page you reference is outdated. Perhaps if you navigate from the
>> main site page, you will see a more current version, including screen
>> shots. 
>> HTH, David 
> *
>> In summary, it's still the same but that's okay,

I don’t understand—you said that the documentation lacked screen shots; when I look at

https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.6/C/gnucash-guide/invest-splitsnmergers1.html <https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.6/C/gnucash-guide/invest-splitsnmergers1.html>

I see a whole host of screen shots. Have there been screen shots removed?

Or are you discussing the content of the page itself? I don’t understand.

If your concern is that it’s too complicated to enter a stock sale in GnuCash, there’s not a lot I can say, except to commiserate. It is a challenge. However, I believe it’s a challenge because the underlying accounting is a little bit challenging. GnuCash is only mirroring that complexity. If you have specific suggestions on how that might be improved, I know I would welcome hearing them.

If your concern is that a stock transaction that includes a split for gains shows twice in the register, the issue has been discussed on the lists on a number of occasions. In those discussions, it has been explained that GnuCash structures its data in a way that requires an entry in the register for every split that is assigned to an account. Thus, a stock transaction with splits for the change in shares and the change in account value will apear twice in the register. This is, and will be, how GnuCash works. 

We have updated the documentation to clarify this. If it continues to concern you, you might choose one of two tactics: first, you can enter the gain as a separate transaction, as I do. Then, there will still be two entries in the register, but they will be for different transactions—one that says “Sell IBM”, and the second that says “IBM gain/loss.” As I said, this works for me. The other option is to use the Transaction Journal view in your account, which will only show the transaction once.

If your concern is something different, please try to explain it a little more clearly to us, so that we can try to address that.

>> will probably check back
>> again next time upgrading versions - one quick question which I am sure
>> relates to the whole GNU world (somehow) what is quimmyseo  ?
>> 

I’m pretty sure that has nothing to do with GnuCash. The Internet is a wild and crazy place.

David



More information about the gnucash-user mailing list