[GNC] End of year, how to clone a set of accounts for the new year?

[Chris Green]

On Tue, Feb 02, 2021 at 10:12:09AM -0500, Derek Atkins wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Tue, February 2, 2021 10:03 am, Chris Green wrote:
> [snip]
> > Yes, that works, thanks Derek.  I suppose it's not too onerous as I
> > only do it once a year! :-)
> 
> This begs the question:  Why are you doing this?  Why not just backup the
> data file, then run tools -> Close Books to zero out your income/expense
> accounts, and then continue on with the same data file?  Why start over
> from scratch?
> 
Because having a separate xxx.gnucash file for each year fits much
better with my way of working where I have a directory for each year
and keep all the documents for one year in the same place.  Thus I
have the general accounts, the building fund accounts, copies of
GiftAid forms, invoices etc. all in one directory which is easily
saved and transportable.

It also means I can use the same report format as I don't have to
generate a report for each year, the report is always for 'everything
in the accounts'.


> GnuCash happily deals with multiple years of data; the reports happily
> report for you.

Only if you specify the date *every time* you generate the report,
unless you copy them when you generate them.


>                    And if you separate it that way, it makes it very hard to
> go back and look at previous years' data.  It seems like a lot of work,

No it isn't, it's trivial.  "cd ~/pcc/2019;gnucash general.gnucash"

Going back to a previous year in the GUI feels more difficult to me! :-)

-- 
Chris Green