[GNC] Income Statement for specific Asset Account ?

[Adrien Monteleone]

A quick follow up...

I know that last reply was really long.

Don’t try to grasp it all right away.

Read it over once or twice.

Run a Transaction Report following the steps I outlined. (forget about tags for now)

See how the report looks. If you like that, great, if not, fiddle with the options till you get something you like.

Without closing the report tab, go back to a register and start tagging some expense and income transactions, a few (or even one) at a time. Add your tag in Options > Filter as instructed.

Reload the report. See how the resulting data changed based on the tag. Repeat that last step with transactions in other months to see the monthly breakdown option.

Refine as needed and tag your remaining relevant transactions.

You’ll learn much more by doing (playing) with the report than by reading. You might even discover a different process that works even better.

Regards,
Adrien

> On Mar 10, 2020 w11d70, at 12:57 PM, Adrien Monteleone <adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net> wrote:
> 
> Let’s clear up a few things:
> 
> 0. *Play* with reports to learn them, particularly, don’t use the Ok button in Options until it looks the way you want, use the Apply button to keep the Options window visible as you adjust settings and preferences.
> 
> 1. P&L doesn’t report ‘for’ asset accounts. It reports on only Expense and Income accounts. Assets accounts do not ‘own’ those income and expense accounts and those accounts do not ‘belong to’ any asset account. All are part of the book, which belong to the entity. (a person, a household, a club, an organization, a business, etc.)
> 
> 2. Both the P&L and the Cashflow report are for a period, with a start and end date. You can make this period anything you want in GnuCash. (some apps restrict you here, GnuCash does not) There are preset ‘quick dates’ and the default is the ‘accounting period’ which for most people is one year. (this is set in preferences) But there are quick dates for ’start of this month’ ’start of last month’ ’start of this quarter’ etc. (along with their comparable ‘end of dates’) But you can also specify exact dates.
> 
> What you won’t see is a 12 month side-by-side report. (there is an experimental multi-column version of the Income Statement in the Experimental reports menu, set your Duration to ‘monthly’)
> 
> If you want that for the Cashflow report, you’ll have to run a report for each month separately, then move it to a spreadsheet and manipulate further from there.
> 
> 3. If you want to show Income - Expenses *for the entire book* (with account selection), you want the P&L or Income Statement report. (same report, two names)
> 
> 4. The Cashflow report will show *all* movements of cash, not just those involving income or expenses. For example, a payment on a loan or credit card is not an expense, but it is a cash flow. (the expense was incurred when you charged on the card at the store, not when you pay the bill) A loan usually is for some asset like a car, land, house, or equipment, but it could be for a major expense as well. The expense is incurred when you receive the goods/services, not when you pay the loan.
> 
> 5. If you are using your book for multiple people, like those in a household and you want to see each person’s income-expenses in addition to the entire household, then you can take three approaches:
> 
>  5a. Separate Books for each person, and a combined book for the entire household
>  5b. One book, with entirely separate account trees for each person
>  5c. One book, with separate asset accounts like checking and cash, and possibly income, but common expense accounts, using a tagging system for the expenses and income.
> 
> 5a. Will require duplicating entries into the common household book - the formal method. (can use Income/P&L report)
> 5b. Will require lots of extra accounts and diligence to make sure you aren’t using the wrong account in transactions. (can use Income/P&L report)
> 5c. Is the least work, but does require making up a tagging system and likely saved *Transaction* report configurations for each person. (to save time later) Can’t use built-in Income/P&L Reports, use Transaction Report instead.
> 
> The tagging system would work like this:
> 
> Using the Notes or Memo field, include text like “#me” or “#bob” et cetera for each income and expense transaction. (The exact text can be anything you want, even emojis I think)
> 
> Then run a Transaction Report
> 
> 1. Options > Accounts - select all expense accounts and the income accounts. (if segregated, then just those for that person)
> 
> 2. Options > Filter > Transaction Filter - enter the tag text you want to filter by, you have an option to use Regular Expressions if you like. (or even exclude a text match, such as running a report for the household sans #bob)
> 
> 3. Options > General > Start/End Date - set to ’start/end of this month’ or as desired
> 
> 4. Options > Sorting > Show subtotals only (hide transactional data) - check this box
> 
> 5. Apply or Ok
> 
> This will give you a single column informal Income Statement. (that is, it doesn’t create headings for Income and Expenses or separate them) Depending on your account tree, more than likely, your expense accounts will be first, followed by income accounts.
> 
> The default is to show a single figures column with income as negative. You can switch to Debit/Credit columns via Options > Display > Amount > ‘Double’. With ’Single’ you get the option to alter the Reverse Balance setting, but it doesn’t appear to work as expected.
> 
> The ‘Grand Total’ will be the net income.
> 
> !!BONUS
> 
> The Transaction Report is very versatile and *can* give you a monthly breakdown.
> 
> 1. Options > Sorting > Primary Key - change to ‘Date’
> 2. Options > Sorting > Primary Subtotal for Date Key - set to ‘Monthly’
> 3. Options > Sorting > Secondary Key - set to ‘Account Name’
> 4. Options > Sorting > Secondary Subtotal - check this box
> 
> optional for readability:
> 
> 5. Options > General > Table for Exporting - check this box
> 
> Now, you’ll get each month for the period (if you chose quarter, year, accounting period or longer duration for start/end dates) with Monthly subtotals as well as a Grand Total for the duration of the report.
> 
> Finally, Save the configuration, and if you want, save it for each person/tag.
> 
> ------
> 
> Note, this tagging system and refined Transaction Report can be used for other purposes, such as showing income-expenses for rental properties, special events, etc.
> 
> Regards,
> Adrien
> 
> 
> 
>> On Mar 10, 2020 w11d70, at 11:59 AM, Long <Phamhoanglongvn at outlook.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Hello Adrien Monteleone-2,
>> 
>> I think P&L doesn't have ability to report for only my asset account. For
>> example, i have Asset named "ME" and Assets named "You". each accounts have
>> their own expenses - income. i want to have MONTHLY REPORT (Expense vs
>> Income) for each Asset Accounts.
>> 
>> Now, the only ways are use the Cash Flow report, And it doesn't have Monthly
>> Report (P&L doesn't have monthly report too, i saw no option to do that).
>