Balance sheet report for multiple accounts

Larry Evans cppljevans at suddenlink.net
Mon Sep 26 15:07:10 EDT 2016


On 09/26/2016 10:15 AM, John Ralls wrote:
>
>> On Sep 26, 2016, at 1:09 PM, juneaubooks <gnulist at ejuneau.net> wrote:
>>
>> I own several sole proprietorship businesses, and need to upgrade from
>> Quicken99 to a real double entry accounting system.  I am trying to see if
>> GnuCash will meet my needs.  I really detest Intuit's move to a subscription
>> system, and I have always preferred using open source software when I can.
>>
>> I understand the account hierarchies and how to set them up for each
>> company, but I have to tell you folks the documentation does suffer from
>> apparently being written by the software developers rather than users or
>> support folks.  I can live with that as long as this mailing list works as a
>> forum where my questions get answers quickly.  I have the following
>> questions:
>>
>> 1.  It appears the set of books for each company needs to be in a separate
>> file.  Is this correct, or can I create several account hierarchies in one
>> file?
>
> The usual way is to set up a separate file for each business so that each is completely isolated from each other. If your businesses are corporations (LLC or Stock) then you'd better do this or you'll get in trouble. If you live in a country where they're persnickety about the books of any sort of business you'd better keep the accounts separate, but if that were the case you probably wouldn't have been using Qucken99.
>
> In theory you can create top level accounts for each business with the usual Assets, Liabilities, and Equity account trees underneath. You'll need to create customized reports (certainly balance sheet and income statement, maybe others) for each company, pointing the report at the right set of accounts for each. In theory. The program wasn't designed that way and AFAIK no one has ever done it, but it might work. I'd be particularly cautious about using the business features--invoices, bills, etc..
>
>> 2.  I frequently move funds between businesses --- I'll take an owner's draw
>> from one business to pay personal expenses or pay myself rent for my half of
>> my duplex (rental business) and then use that money to make a mortgage
>> payment (also an account transfer).  If I have all the accounts in one file,
>> can I perform the transfer from one account to another as a single
>> transaction, or do I have to manually debit one account and credit another?
>> (And yes, I did take accounting classes for my business degree).
>
> To do this and keep the books in balance for each company you'll need such transfers to have (at least) 4 splits, 2 for each company, and make sure yourself that the transaction balances for each company. GnuCash will only check the balance across the whole transaction. You'll have to create the transaction manually the first time, after which the autofill tool will create a copy for you as long as you always start in the same account and use the same description.
>
>>
>> 3.  If I can create several account hierarchies in one file, can I generate
>> a balance sheet report that shows not only the balance sheet (assets and
>> liabilities) for each company, but also a total for all companies, or do I
>> have to manually consolidate the individual company reports?
>
> You'll be creating a balance sheet report for each company. You can also create an overall balance sheet report by selecting all of the accounts. There's a multi-panel report that allows you to combine individual reports that may save a few steps when generating reports.
>
>>
>> It would really help save me a lot of time to know the answers to these
>> questions before I spend a lot of time with trial and error tests.
>>
>
> I suggest that you set up a mock file with two companies and only a few transactions for each and test thoroughly all of the features you want to use.
>
If you do set up a mock file, I'd appreciate it if you could upload
that file to someplace on the web from which I can download it.
I've a similar problem and I'd appreciate a prototype solution.

-regards,
Larry




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