[GNC] How to run report on Paid Sales for a period? (Cash Accounting Method)

doncram doncram at gmail.com
Tue Oct 1 17:20:03 EDT 2019


Since GnuCash does not have the Cash Flow Statement report as an option,
for your immediate purpose you can/should generate one manually, working
from a printout of the Balance Sheet at the beginning and another at the
end of your period, and an Income Statement report for the period.  You can
do this by hand or in an Excel or other spreadsheet;  I recommend not
messing with changing what is in your GnuCash accounting system to
jerry-rig something about Cash Collections etc., as someone else is
suggesting.

In the United States, the Statement of Cash Flows was not formally required
in financial reporting until 1987 or so, within a year of that I am sure.
Up to then, financial analysts on Wall St. spent a lot of time generating
their own Cash Flow statements as best they could, in what was called a
"Mann worksheet", a standard analysis, by the way.

Setting aside history, though, you might want to create an "indirect
method" statement of cash flows like the example presented in Wikipedia's
article, "Cash flow statement", at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_flow_statement .  Basically the page
starts with Income, then makes adjustments:
1. to add back any depreciation (which is an accrual expense not a cash
expenditure)
2. to subtract any increase in Accounts Receivable (or add any decrease,
like if you collected more or credit sales during the period than you gave
out in new credit)
3. to add any increase in Accounts Payable (or subtract any decrease, like
if you paid down your debts, using up cash)
4. to subtract any increase in Inventory (because that would have used up
cash) or add any decrease in inventory, because that generates more cash
than would be expected from sales holding inventory constant)
Those are the "Operating Activities" types of cash flows.  Use a line to
report a subtotal after these adjustments.
There are also "Investing Activities" such as using cash to purchase
equipment assets (e.g. converting asset of cash to asset of
Property,Plant,Equipment, which contributes to change in cash, but is not
part of income)
There are also "Financing Activities" such as any proceeds from selling
stock which provide cash, but also are not part of income.
These have to add up to explain a bottom-line Change in Cash for the
period.  Check that it does match the actual change in your "Cash", i.e.
the sum of any petty cash on hand, any balances in checking accounts, etc.,
which are effectively nearly immediately available so are defined as part
of "Cash".
I would guess that your reconciliation will be simpler than the example
given there in Wikipedia.  You just skip any lines that don't apply, like
if you have no Accounts Payable or any stock sales.

Hope this helps.
Donald Cram



On Tue, Oct 1, 2019 at 2:54 PM doncram <doncram at gmail.com> wrote:

> What you want is a Cash Flow Statement, which in effect "undoes"
> accruals.  This is basic in any accounting system, along with Balance Sheet
> statements and Income statements.  Any introductory accounting course at a
> community college or university, or any introductory accounting text book
> will cover Cash Flow statements of two kinds ("indirect method" and "direct
> method").  Programming-wise it is easiest for software to generate an
> indirect method approach, which is basically presented as a reconciliation
> from "Income" for a given period, marching down the page to get to "Change
> in cash" for the period.  "Sales" is included in the overall income;  one
> of the steps in reconciliation is to make adjustment for any change in
> Accounts Receivable.  E.g. suppose Sales were $10,000, but Accounts
> Receivable went up by $2,000 (reflecting an increase in new sales on credit
> greater than any collection on past accounts receivable, and any writeoffs
> of bad debts) then the cash collected would be $8,000.  You want that
> report;  GnuCash should be able to spit it out for any date range.
> QuickBooks software and all other accounting packages that I know of does
> that.
>
> GNUcash should include such a statement/report, but I think it does not.
> You should not have to try to cobble together something from bank
> statements;  it should simply be available.
>
> sincerely,  Donald Cram
>
> Don Cram
>
> On Tue, Oct 1, 2019 at 2:26 PM Adrien Monteleone <
> adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net> wrote:
>
>> #1 - make a copy/backup of your data file and put it somewhere else.
>>
>> #2 - you should be able to just install new. Your OS should remove the
>> old version as needed. If you find that doesn’t work, then yes, uninstall
>> old, then install new.
>>
>> Your data file is readable by 3.x, however, it will on first run, update
>> some configuration file storage locations. (and move those related files)
>> While the kinks on this should have been worked out by now, it might not
>> work properly. You’ll notice something is amiss if your preferences are
>> off, or your saved report configurations are missing or inaccessible. The
>> fix is rather simple and nothing is lost. Just report back here if you
>> notice this problem.
>>
>> The ‘look and feel’ is quite different from 2.6.x. If you find you need
>> to adjust fonts/sizing, report back here and we can point you in the right
>> direction to adjust these to your liking.
>>
>> There are a few other ‘adjustments’ to get used to but since those vary
>> by user and workflow, I won’t get into them up front as you may never
>> encounter them. If something doesn’t work like it used to for you, just
>> speak up.
>>
>> Note that 2.6.19 (and 2.6.21) can read a 3.x file, so you can continue to
>> go back and forth if you need. Just be sure to keep straight if you are
>> accessing the current or backup copy.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Adrien
>>
>> > On Oct 1, 2019 w40d274, at 1:59 PM, Fran_3 <mailbox0600 at yahoo.com>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > What is the proceedure to update gnuCash?
>> > a - uninstall old
>> > b - install new
>> >
>> > or what?
>> >
>> > and, will the old v2.6.19 gnucash files still work properly?
>> >
>> > Thanks
>>
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>


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