[GNC] Stock account. Entering transacction.

[farleykj]

When I do stock transactions that involve shares being bought or sold, I
always do them in the investment account for that "holds" the shares for
that specific stock. For example, the account structure might be something
like:

Investments:My Brokerage Account:XYZ Stock

So I open the account "XYZ Stock" and I can now buy shares. There are two
types of buy transactions I can do; add shares from old account that I
already own, using equity open balance transaction, or buy with cash in my
investment account.

--- Use Equity Open Balance ---
Start a new transaction. Gnucash will automatically put a split in the
transaction that will have the "XYZ Stock" account referenced. This is the
line where you tab over and put the number of shares in the "Tot Shares"
column and the total cost of the shares in the "Tot Buy" column. Gnucash
will automatically calculate the price per share.
Next tab to the next line. Gnucash will automatically enter the same amount
as the "Tot Buy" column in the first line but in the "tot Sell" column. Pick
the equity account you are using to track the amount of initial equity (for
example, "Opening Balances" or something like that).
Once both these transaction lines are entered, you are done. Hit Enter to
finish the transaction. You should see the "Balance" column listing the
number of shares you added.

--- Use Cash from Account ---
This transaction is exactly like the Equity one, but instead of an Equity
account, you will be using cash from another account. For me, this is always
a "Cash" account that is a part of my investment account. For ecample:

Investments:My Brokerage Account:Cash

Once the buy transaction is done, the cash account inside my investment
account will be decreased by the cost for the new shares.

I think the trouble you might have been having is trying to enter the
transactions from within a cash account. I don't know how you can specify
shares when entering the transaction that way. That's why I always do buy
and sell transactions for investment securities in the accounts that hold
those securities.

Hope this helps. Getting used to the double entry accounting can be a bit
confusing at first, but after a while it makes sense.




-----
Ken Farley
--
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