[GNC] How to record "investment" in gnucash ?

Adrien Monteleone adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net
Tue Apr 7 14:17:02 EDT 2020


I meant ‘investment’ in general terms, but the idea with regard to physical assets is the same.

Your local laws will determine when you book increases or decreases in value.

*Generally* this is only done at the sale, when the gain or loss is realized. Before a sale, you’re just guessing and estimating.

I have some physical silver on hand. I’ve set up an asset account to track my initial balance and later purchases. (I haven’t sold anything, yet)

I set the account currency to XAG (use XAU for Gold) and turned on Trading Accounts in File > Properties.

I then either periodically Get Prices, or enter pricing manually as needed.

GnuCash shows me the value of this account in ounces, and offers a USD (in my case) equivalent based on the current price. (or an average if that is what I chose in report Options, though I prefer ’nearest in time’)

I *only* record purchases in the account. I don’t record fluctuations in value. If I were to sell some silver, then and only then, would I record the sale at the purchase price, and any difference would be recorded to a gain/loss Income (or Equity) account—e.g,

Dr. Cash			100
  Cr. Assets:Silver	 	 80
  Cr. Income:Capital Gain	 20

or

Dr. Cash			 60
Dr. Income:Capital Gain		 20
  Cr. Assets:Silver		 80


Once again, this is a *general* procedure. Your local laws might have specific requirements. If you aren’t concerned with official reporting and just want to see the current value of your asset, don’t bother with manual transactions, try the above method. It is much cleaner and simpler.

If you do have to worry about official asset reporting, talk to a local CPA first to find out what you need to do, then we can help with how to do it.

Regards,
Adrien

> On Apr 7, 2020 w15d98, at 1:04 PM, Long <Phamhoanglongvn at outlook.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> Now, i am confusing, i'm talking about "Gold", maybe it look like "House" or
> "Painting", not "Stock". And GnuCash documents had talk about that. And i am
> doing in difference way (easier) to manager that.
> 
> And i am new and not an accounting. So please help me by guide me more if
> you can. Thank you.
> 
> Regards.




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