[GNC] Profit/Loss report

Tommy Trussell tommy.trussell at gmail.com
Mon Oct 1 10:20:19 EDT 2018


On Fri, Sep 28, 2018 at 8:47 AM Dan Kalagher <dan.kalagher at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm trying to use a single set of accounts for both household and small
> business. I added the small business account using the "new top level
> account" when I created it. I now want to run a Profit/Loss report for just
> the business accounts. When I select the top level business account and
> it's children, the report is empty. However if I run the P&L report without
> selecting, I get a full report with all accounts.
>

I believe you can get your strategy to work, but it might be considered
"advanced," and you might find that the built-in reports do not work as
expected (as you're seeing).

The GENERAL recommendation is to keep separate books (GnuCash data files)
for each separate entity -- keep your business books separate from your
personal books. When you're operating a small business, that MAY require a
small amount of extra effort to duplicate transactions in both places, but
it would also help condition you to think about the transactions
separately. That may be VERY important at some point in the future.

I manage the accounts for five separate entities (soon to be six), so I
have five separate data files. I use linux and created launchers for each
different set of books, and GnuCash will happily launch more than one
instance to accommodate. Occasionally I have more than one GnuCash file
open at one time, but I usually avoid it because it's a pain to track down
mistakes when accidentally I enter things in the wrong place.

ALL THAT SAID, I have a very small side business (irregular income,
irregular expenses) so what I did for that particular situation was create
separate income and expense accounts for them UNDERNEATH the top-level
accounts. SO I have income accounts for my salary, my wife's salary, bank
interest, etc. Then I have dozens of separate accounts for my business
expenses, my household expenses, veterinary expenses, etc. (You can make
the tree pretty complicated -- just rename the accounts without losing any
data if you get them wrong.) When I run reports, the income and expense
information shows as separate line items on my reports, and the information
goes on separate pages on tax forms. In any case my accountant is happy,
and that's what will matter if I ever need to justify something to a
government entity.

OH YEAH -- be sure to talk to your tax accountant. In my experience they
will be completely happy with the standard reports GnuCash produces, as
long as you get the underlying income and expense transactions in the right
place. It does take awhile to get everything sorted out.

Since you're experienced with MoneyDance, you may want to enter everything
in GnuCash as well as MoneyDance for a few months and compare reports until
you are comfortable dropping the old one.



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