[GNC] What is the purpose of hidden accounts?

[Michael or Penny Novack]

On 8/22/2021 2:20 AM, Jim DeLaHunt wrote:
> On 2021-08-21 22:13, Tim Hume via gnucash-user wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> In GnuCash one can create a hidden account. What legitimate purposes 
>> are there for hidden accounts?
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Tim.
>

>
> Also, bear in mind that "legitimate" is a function of the bookkeeper 
> and the accounting rules they must follow. There are purposes which 
> might be legitimate for the personal books of an individual, which 
> might not be legitimate for the audited books of a corporation. 

THAT is a very good explanation.

But I want to point something out. Some of us who are more formal with 
bookkeeping might want  not to remove historical (but not currently 
active) accounts still IN the books but not have them creating clutter. 
Besides, as has also been pointed out, if you delete accounts, you have 
to decide on a place where the transactions will go. That is likely to 
be far more work than simply marking the no longer active accounts 
"hidden". I'll give an example of that:

Suppose we are an organization that over time has fixed assets that get 
depreciated. In the case of our chestnut chapter, mowers, mower sheds, 
trailers, portable lifts, etc. What to do with the associated accounts 
once fully depreciated? COULD have an account "historical fixed assets" 
with children "total basis" and "total depreciation" and as each fixed 
asset becomes fully depreciated, close the accounts here. But simpler to 
mark then "hidden".

In my own personal books, we track "donations". What to do with an 
organization to which we once gave but no longer (or not currently). I 
can easily choose to see hidden accounts and find out whether we ever 
gave to an organization. Why important? I will treat very differently a 
solicitation from an organization asking us to "rejoin" or "renew 
membership" based on looking that up. At the moment, it appears a number 
of organizations are trying lying/trickery, pretending whoever they are 
soliciting are prior donors/members who just forgot to renew. Any 
organizations trying that with us  get a sharply worded letter 
explaining why they are now disqualified for consideration being added 
to our list for a year. << essentially, all organizations on our list 
get an annual donation -- so from a report, we can check "who hasn't 
gotten theirs yet" and this is MUCH easier of the clutter of "inactive" 
accounts isn't visible --- but we don't want the account permanently 
gone in case we put that organization back on our list >>

Michael D Novack