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

[Adrien Monteleone]

Unfortunately, the Statement of Cashflows Report in GnuCash does not work as you describe. There is a large bug report on this. More than likely, that report will get renamed, and a more proper version implemented from scratch.

While I understand the workarounds I presented aren’t optimal (they are "work arounds" after all) they are the fastest path to the desired result that has been found to work with GnuCash. (other users may have additional methods but I haven’t seen them described here on the list)

An additional path is to not use the Business Features at all, enter all transactions manually, and then the Income Statement would work as-is.

Of course, it is up to the end user to decide the best path.

Regards,
Adrien

> On Oct 1, 2019 w40d274, at 4:20 PM, doncram <doncram at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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