[GNC] help to set up equity sub-accounts opening balances

[Michael or Penny Novack]

On 8/8/2020 11:00 PM, Adrien Monteleone wrote:
> You don't *need* to close a month or year, though you certainly can if 
> you want to.
>
> In the old days of pen and paper, 'closing' was the process of 
> migrating balances from temporary accounts to Equity in preparation of 
> reports.
>
> With computers, that is not necessary. In GnuCash, you can just run 
> the desired reports for any time period or 'as of' date you wish and 
> you never have to close anything.
>
>
> Regards,
> Adrien
>
> On 8/8/20 5:33 PM, Marilyn Graves Kimple via gnucash-user wrote:
>
>> I have not read ahead to see how you close a month in GnuCash, but I 
>> used to divvy up my "profits" among these three accounts so my P/L 
>> report shows a zero.

Marilyn,

        If you do as Adrien points out, that report (Income Statement, 
P&L, by whatever name) you will see that the report process gives you 
that item "net gain" (or "net loss") that brings the report net to zero. 
Exactly the same as when the explicit "close the books" of the old days 
was balanced to zero by a transaction to equity for that amount. IF you 
want it more explicit each month, you could have an account (under 
EITHER "income" or "expense" ) and after first running the report to 
obtain the amount and its sign, enter a transaction for that amount to 
equity. Or to a reserve account under "liabilities" << where reserves 
belong >>

Michael D Novack