Report to locate Unrealized Gains

[John Ralls]

> On Feb 15, 2017, at 6:44 AM, David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> On Feb 15, 2017, at 6:30 PM, David T. via gnucash-user <gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:
>> I believe that you made a suggestion to create a subaccount under the Gain income accounts for these fees and commissions, in essence having commissions reduce the gain. This may work out for me, but would be somewhat messy because I have separate LT and ST gains accounts for each brokerage account I hold; this means an additional n*2 commissions accounts (where n=the number of brokerage accounts). 
>> 
>> I wonder whether it would be possible to place a commissions account on the Equity side of the hierarchy, thus having commissions add to the basis of the stocks. My hierarchy on that side is quite rudimentary.
>> 
>> I am not sure how any of this will play out on the Tax report, the portfolio reports, or how it might work with Lots, but I will see what I can figure out. Then, I will report back my results. Just don’t anyone hold their breath!
>> 
>> My apologies to you and others who have attempted to knock sense into me.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> David T.
> 
> Well. On a simple test file, I tried the second option first—that is, I took the commissions and fees accounts and simply re-parented them to Equity:Opening Balances (to do this, I had to change the accounts to Type Equity).
> 
> Then I scrubbed the stock account. The scrubbed gains matched the net gains I expected to see. Then I ran the Trial Balance and Balance Sheet reports. Both balanced.
> 
> So, on the face of it, it appears that using this method may work better than the erroneuos method I used before. I will have to do more analysis to see whether I am missing something else. Of course, if anyone with more accounting/GnuCash knowledge
> wishes to weigh in, I may be more willing to listen than I’ve been recently. ;)

David,

That's a creative solution, it didn't even cross my mind. I suggest that Opening Balances is perhaps not the best parent and that there's no reason the Trading Commissions and Trading Fees accounts can't be directly under Equity.

Regards,
John Ralls