[GNC] Rounding & formulas

[Michael or Penny Novack]

> Thomas
>
> Another perspective on this is that in practice what rounding procedure a
> bank or other external body may apply may depend on any  legislative
> requirements (usually by taxation bodies) and their internal accounting
> policies and these are not under GnuCash's control and may also vary between
> different legal jurisdictions.
>
> It is impossible for GnuCash to know apriori how  a particular amount will
> be rounded and appear in external statements (hopefully someone is not
> skimming off the fractions of  cents from the rounding) against which the
> GnuCash records will ultimately be reconciled, so no matter what rounding
> procedure was used by GnuCash in any internal calculations, it can end up
> being wrong because the bank chooses to or is required to round in a
> different manner.
>
> David Cousens

It can be MUCH worse than that, because the consequences of legislated 
rounding (in filling out filings) may be complicated. Thus for US 
non-profits, if they have to file a 990/990EZ this much not only be 
"whole dollar" but must match the previous year's filing. But rounded 
(A+B) does not necessarily equal rounded A + rounded B. In  other words, 
there is no way to do this by "formula" as will require human decision 
as to what "fudging" will result in minimal distortion << for example, 
if use truncate instead of rounding for THIS amount and round up on THAT 
one all will work out >>

So some years don't have to fudge any amounts, other years just one or 
two, still other years nasty and have to do many.

Same with banks. Some may use one method of rounding, others another. 
And sorry, but although many currencies integral to a specific decimal 
point they may sometimes use more << like the "mil" seen in tax rates. 
water rates, etc. >>

Michael D Novack