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

[Derek Atkins]

HI,

On Tue, February 2, 2021 12:07 pm, Chris Green wrote:
> 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.

That kind of archiving makes sense, but I don't see why you need to
actually start over.  You could keep the existing data as you start the
new year.  I.e., you could do the equivalent of:

  copy datafile from 2020/foo.gnucash to 2021/foo.gnucash

Also keep in mind, GnuCash can also get confused if you have multiple
files of the same name in different directories.  So the above might cause
issues with metadata, because both would want to open "foo.gnucash.gcm".

> 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'.

I'm not sure what "same report format" means here.

>> 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.

The default settings work pretty well.  So really, you should rarely have
to change dates, except when there is something specific you want.  Those
reports currently default to the current accounting period, which can be
arbitrary or fixed.

For me, I have "Previous Year" Balance Sheet and Income Statement reports
that I leave open.

>
>>                    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! :-)

It's only difficult because of how you separate them.  For me, I can take
my (open) GnuCash and run a Balance Sheet report, go to the options, and
select 12/31/2009 and -- voila, I've got my EoY balance sheet from 2009. 
I can search for historical transactions as well.  Also, if I have rare
transactions, the auto-fill works great.  For example, I recently had a
shredding company come to take care of a bunch of boxes of papers.  The
last time I used them was 7 years ago.  But I was able to duplicate that
old transaction (and see that I paid the same amount!)  ...  All because
the data is all there together.

NB that while GnuCash does let you have multiple instances of the
application open at one time, they will contend for your Preferences, so
if you make preferences changes in one they may get overwritten by
another.

Anyways, do what works for you.  I'm just suggesting there might be better
ways, or at least ways that require less work.

> Chris Green

> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant