[GNC] Ghost Equity Accounts

[Frank H. Ellenberger]

Hi David,

let me try to explain, but Ralf may correct me: An new account property
"Opening Balance" was introduced to avoid some other problems. And each
book needs (at least) one account with the property set.

While you created the account, the program could not find such an
account and created one.

You should be able to avoid this behaviour by marking your existing
[Equity:]"Opening Balance" – whatever it is named – with the flag in
Edit Account.

Probably the current checks should be improved in a few ways:
Run only on file load or delete of the last as Opening balance marked
account.
Instead of automaticly creation display a dialog with the list of
current equity accounts ands ask to select or create one, which gets the
flag set.
Finally it should be documented in
https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash-docs/blob/maint/help/C/Help_ch_Account-Actions.xml
and probably other places.

Regards
Frank

Am 08.04.21 um 14:30 schrieb D.:
> Frank, 
> 
> We should keep this on the list. 
> 
> I've read through this bug, and a related bug mentioned in the comments there, and I admit I do not understand the various points of the discussions there. 
> 
> If my experience can be explained by these changes, though, I'd like to point out that in my use case, I am neither attempting to use the New Account Hierarchy nor creating a new file. I am simply creating a new account in my existing CoA. I am adding a comment to that bug to have my problem considered in relation to it. 
> 
> David T. 
> 
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> From: "Frank H. Ellenberger" <frank.h.ellenberger at gmail.com>
> Sent: Thu Apr 08 02:05:32 EDT 2021
> To: "David T." <sunfish62 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [GNC] Ghost Equity Accounts
> 
> Hi David,
> 
> I suspect, it could be related to
> https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=798070 and its ancestor.
> 
> Regards
> Frank
> 
> Am 08.04.21 um 03:28 schrieb David T. via gnucash-user:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I thought I saw something about this not too long ago, but cannot put my
>> finger on the thread.
>>
>> I am using GC4.4 on Windows 10, and have been using GnuCash since 2005.
>>
>> Basically, I recently purchased shares of a new stock, and I followed my
>> usual procedure in GnuCash: I created a new asset account of type Stock
>> for the new equity under my brokerage account (Assets:Brokerage:XXX
>> Stock). While creating the account, I used the new commodity option to
>> create the entry in the security database. Having done this, I then
>> opened the register and entered the buy transaction in the usual way.
>>
>> All good to this point.
>>
>> However, now I find a new account in the Equity hierarchy for the new
>> commodity: Equity: Opening Balances - XXX
>>
>> This account is empty, so I can just delete it, BUT...
>>
>> Why is this account getting created? I didn't set up an existing
>> holding, which might ostensibly have required an opening balances
>> transaction (but which I would not have done in this way anyhow). And I
>> didn't explicitly ask for a new equity account to be created.
>>
>> Will I get Equity accounts created when I add other kinds of accounts?
>> I'll note that I also have a new Equity account for a mutual fund
>> account I added at the same time. But, what about Bank accounts?
>> Liabilities? And if not, why not?
>>
>> And why am I only seeing this NOW? As I've said, I've used GnuCash for a
>> long long time, and none of the OTHER equities I've created over the
>> years (and there have been a LOT!) have generated these spurious Equity
>> accounts. So, why now?
>>
>> Finally, Is there some way to NOT have GnuCash create these accounts
>> every time I create a new Stock or Mutual Fund Account?
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> David T.
>>
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