[GNC] Getting My Account To Trial Balance

Hugh MacDonald OBE sassunachobe at gmail.com
Fri Jul 27 21:53:48 EDT 2018


Thanks David  - it's late here now so i’ll try in  the morning.

> On 28 Jul 2018, at 01:31, David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hugh,
> 
> Going back to your profit of £20.99.  
> 
> Does the Trial Balance report identify it as an unrealized gain?
> 
> Have you tried running the Trial Balance report for earlier dates to establish the date when it appeared?  That should help you find the transaction and thus the problem that caused it.  Then you may find that some transaction has unintentionally introduced an account not denominated in sterling or possibly even a bug in GnuCash (Can't say that never happened).
> 
> David C
> 
>> On Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 6:40 PM, H Millar MacDonald OBE <spahonsecobe at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi David
>> 
>> Thanks.  I was worrying  that I just wasn’t getting it.   I downloaded the software and it offers an option to change currency to sterling which I did.  It was that simple so I haven’t do e any conversions from USD.
>> 
>> Thanks for your patience.
>> 
>> > On 27 Jul 2018, at 23:14, David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > 
>> > Hugh,
>> > 
>> > There has been a lot of discussion in this thread that does not apply to
>> > your use case.  The Trial Balance Report should not show any unrealized
>> > gain if you do not have any accounts that are denominated in any currency
>> > other than that defined by your Locale.  Since you report that it does,
>> > there may be an issue with settings on your computer.
>> > 
>> > Do not assume that GnuCash will not work for you.  Please tell us what
>> > settings you used to change the default from US dollars to your local
>> > currency.
>> > 
>> > David C
>> > 
>> > On Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 1:49 PM, H M MacDonald OBE <sassunachobe at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> > 
>> >> We aren’t a business – we are a social club.  Most of our income is
>> >> derived from subscriptions or donations or ticket payments for our social
>> >> functions.   Our expenditure is on running costs like postage, stationery
>> >> and hotel charges for meals and functions.  The profit is the overall
>> >> profit when the expenditure is deducted from the income.   The software is
>> >> fine for recording everything and for calculating the profit and loss but
>> >> at the year end we will need to produce a balance sheet and that’s where
>> >> the problem appears to come up.  I’m really sorry if I’m wasting all your
>> >> time – you’ve all been really helpful and maybe its just that gnucash won’t
>> >> do what we expect.
>> >> 
>> >> From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+spahonsecobe=gmail.com@
>> >> gnucash.org> on behalf of David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com>
>> >> Date: Friday, 27 July 2018 at 14:19
>> >> To: Hugh MacDonald OBE <sassunachobe at gmail.com>
>> >> Cc: Gnucash Users <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>, Stan Brown <
>> >> the_stan_brown at fastmail.fm>
>> >> 
>> >> Subject: Re: [GNC] Getting My Account To Trial Balance
>> >> 
>> >> If you sold an asset that is valued in units other than your currency then
>> >> read the chapter of the manual about capital gains about how to enter your
>> >> profit.
>> >> 
>> >> Otherwise tell us more about the transaction where that profit appeared.
>> >> 
>> >> David C
>> >> 
>> >> On Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 4:11 AM H M MacDonald OBE <sassunachobe at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >> 
>> >> My accounts are showing a profit of £20.99  which shows as an Imbalance of
>> >> £20.99.  Sorry to be a bit slow on all of this but are folk saying that the
>> >> £20.99 needs to be added to current assets/equity to make the trial
>> >> balance?
>> >> I¹ve tried that and it still fails.  It can¹t be added to the income  as a
>> >> profit since that will make the profit double.  Clearly there¹s something
>> >> I¹m still not getting ŠŠŠ
>> >> 
>> >> Thanks to everyone for their input so far.
>> >> 
>> >> From:  gnucash-user
>> >> <gnucash-user-bounces+spahonsecobe=gmail.com at gnucash.org> on behalf of
>> >> Stan
>> >> Brown <the_stan_brown at fastmail.fm>
>> >> Date:  Thursday, 26 July 2018 at 13:21
>> >> To:  GnuCash User List <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
>> >> Subject:  Re: [GNC] Getting My Account To Trial Balance
>> >> 
>> >> David T. wrote:
>> >> 
>> >>> For those who *do* have such holdings, a balanced transaction will
>> >> still fail
>> >>> the trial balance if the gain or loss isn?t entered. In this instance,
>> >> there
>> >>> will be no entries in IMBALANCE-XXX, since each transaction balances.
>> >>> Example: buy 10 shares of X for $100, using cash from your checking
>> >> account
>> >>> (credit/debit of $100). Then sell those shares for $150 (debit/credit of
>> >>> $150).
>> >>> Both transaction balance?but where did that extra cash come from?
>> >> Without
>> >>> entering the gain of $50 as income, the Trial balance will fail.
>> >> 
>> >> Is that really what happens?  I can't understand why, if it does. Yes, you
>> >> end up with an extra $50 in cash, and you also end up with MINUS $50 in the
>> >> investment: the original debit of $100, and the sale credit of $50, leaving
>> >> a credit (minus) balance of $50. As far as I can see, the trial balance
>> >> still balances.
>> >> 
>> >> Of course, a negative balance in an investment account should raise a red
>> >> flag when (if) yo notice it: "Oops, I forgot to enter the gain as a
>> >> transaction." But I don't see how it should make the trial balance fail.
>> >> 
>> >> BTW, instead of a separate transaction, I might record the gain as a split:
>> >> Assets:Cash $150 debit
>> >> Assets:Investment $100 credit
>> >> Income:Gain on investments $50 credit
>> >> 
>> >> Is there any disadvantage to doing that, versus two transactions?
>> >> Assets:Investment $50 debit
>> >> Income:Gain on Investments $50 credit
>> >> Assets:Cash $150 debit
>> >> Assets::Investment $150 credit
>> >> 
>> >> --
>> >> Stan Brown
>> >> the_stan_brown at fastmail.fm
>> >> http://BrownMath.com
>> >> http://OakRoadSystems.com/
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> gnucash-user mailing list
>> >> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>> >> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
>> >> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>> >> If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see
>> >> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information.
>> >> -----
>> >> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>> >> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>> >> 
>> >> 
>> >> 
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> gnucash-user mailing list
>> >> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>> >> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
>> >> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>> >> If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see
>> >> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information.
>> >> -----
>> >> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>> >> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>> >> 
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> gnucash-user mailing list
>> >> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>> >> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
>> >> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>> >> If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see
>> >> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information.
>> >> -----
>> >> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>> >> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>> >> 
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > gnucash-user mailing list
>> > gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>> > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
>> > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>> > If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information.
>> > -----
>> > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>> > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
> 


More information about the gnucash-user mailing list