A couple of Questons about GNUCASH

[Mike or Penny Novack]

On 1/26/2017 5:59 PM, Chris Good wrote:

>> Hi Chris
>>
>> I've looked all over and I can't find the answers to a couple of questions.
>> Would you be able to help me?
>>
>> 1:  Is there a way to add transaction types for Investments? Currently all
>> there is, is Buy & Sell and I would like to see dividends, transfer &
>> management fees
>>
>> 2:  Is there a way to do a backup from within the software?
>>
>> I really appreciate any help you can offer
>>
>> Yours truly
>> Norma Price
>> Elmwood, Ontario
2 first ---- No, and for a very good reason. The backup strategy for 
your computer should NOT be application by application. And GOOD backup 
strategies can't be simply done from the computer << for example, what 
command might you imagine that would go to your fire safe, open it, take 
out the backup drive, hook it to the computer, make the backup copy, 
dismount the drive, and put it back into the fire safe >>  You should 
have some strategy that makes periodic backups of ALL of the data on 
your computer.

      That said, there are also backup strategies that make "working 
backups" (would be immediately accessible to restore a damaged/lost 
file) leaving aside the part of backup that gets at least one copy 
remote from the machine. There is software to do things like this. For 
example, as part of shut down, finds and makes a version copy of every 
file that has changed since the last time.

1 second --- I really don't understand what you mean by "transaction 
type" and suspect that this is matter of not understanding the 
fundamentals of double entry bookkeeping. For example, you seem to think 
there is a "buy" vs a "sell" and the only difference I would recognize 
between a transaction doing one or the other is which accounts are being 
debited and which credited.  Are you looking at column titles? You are 
choosing the (supposedly) user friendly ones rather than "debit" and 
"credit"? The thing you have to realize is that whether the user 
friendly meaning applies depends on the context << but by convention, 
the left one will be "debit" and the right one "credit", always --- 
which is why I will suggest that those totally new to double entry try 
learning that old fashioned way. The folks who are experienced will know 
when the meaning is the usual "user friendly" term and when not.

Confusion for newbies (to double entry) also because not yet able to see 
which account they should be entering a transaction from. Yes. you can 
start with any of the accounts affected by the transaction, but some 
will be easier than others.

Michael