Unit Trusts assistance development

[Derek Atkins]

Hylton,

"Hylton Conacher (ZR1HPC)" <hylton at conacher.co.za> writes:

> My issue is related to the fact that I cannot create the account
> opening balances as at 31/08 from my paper statement which shows both
> the price, the number of units held and the closing market ZAR value
> of the units held in that particular unit trust asset.
>
> Using either a Mutual fund or Stock, did not allow me to correctly
> show the opening ZAR value of my unit trusts. When I open a new
> account as a mutual fund, it mistakenly marks the ZAR value of this
> asset as negative. According to John a course in basic accounting
> would fix this, however nowhere have I ever seen an asset marked as a
> negative currency value.

A Liability can be viewed as a negative asset.

> Should I try and open a new account as a stock, the tab on the new
> account windows indicating Opening Balance' is greyed out, just as it
> is on a Mutual Fund?


You seem to be under the impression that there is something "special"
about an opening balance.  This is not the case.  An opening balance is
just a "regular" transaction between the account and the "special"
account Equity:Opening Balances.  The New Account Dialog will
automatically create this equity account if it does not already exist,
and will automatically create this transaction for you.  However you can
always just create that transaction by hand.

> I basically need to add a Current Asset called Unit Trusts which
> totals the ZAR value of its sub accounts, of which there will be five
> named AG-Bal, AG-E, AG-MM, AG-O, Cor-Balp each with an opening balance
> on the 31/08/2017 consisting of number of units to 4 decimal places, a
> unit price in cents to 2 decimal places/(ZAR to 4 decimal places) and
> a closing market value, in ZAR to 2 decimal places, which depending on
> the fund may/may not be the product of units x price i.e. the closing
> market value.
>
> THIS IS THE CRUNCH:
> THE OPENING BALANCE ZAR VALUE OR THE CLOSING MARKET VALUE ON THE
> PREVIOUS DAY MAY/MAY NOT BE THE PRODUCT OF UNITS OWNED X PRICE

GnuCash does not store the unit price.  It's is ALWAYS dynamically
computed.  GnuCash stores everything in #units, and the total value in
the transaction currency (which *should* be the currency of the
stock/mutual parent account, but it all depends on the currency of the
account where the transaction is created).

> A single account on my paper statement shows:
>
> Units: 6659.22
> Unit Price(cents): 2245.70
> Closing Market Value: ZAR 149546.01

As an opening balance you really should be using the account basis and
not the current value.  Assuming this closing market value is your
account basis, then you should enter this as 6659.22 units for a total
price of ZAR 149546.01.  But of course thi sis assuming that is the
correct basis.

> I am hopeful, once I can get the Opening Balances completed, that I
> will then be able to figure out how transaction will be entered
> correctly so at least my assets don't show up as a negative.

See above.

> Thankfully transactions seemingly follow the unit x price in ZAR cents
> = ZAR value added/withdrawn from fund.

Of course.  And the opening balance transaction does too.

> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
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-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available