[GNC] Basic Question (I hope) - End of Year Procedure

[Michael or Penny Novack]

On 12/24/2018 3:45 PM, Colin Law wrote:

> I don't do this, for me there is no point. It is possible to view or
> report on only transactions within a date range if one wants so I
> don't see the advantage of closing the books.  If you do then you
> loose easy access to the history, so for example when the dishwasher
> fails and you think when and where did I buy that then you cannot
> immediately find out.  I now have 18 years of personal accounts
> history immediately accessible.
Misunderstanding of what  "close the books" does?

It doesn't existing transactions in the "temporary" income and expense 
accounts.

Assuming that it is implemented approximating the traditional process, 
it enters a giant split transaction that closes (brings the balance to 
zero) for all of these accounts with whatever is necessary going to 
equity as the gain or loss for the period. In the old days, that was by 
moving through another temporary account called "profit and loss" (all 
the income and expense accounts closed to this account) which was then 
closed to equity by the gain or loss amount.

Since gnucash can produce the report without this step (the "profit and 
loss" account served as the report back then) there is no need to close 
the books.

Michael D Novack