[GNC] Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Report

[Adrien Monteleone]

I *never* said it has a 'Statement of Cash Flows' report. Please re-read 
my post.

I'm the one who filed the bug on that point.

I had proposed in that bug, what I thought, was a reasonable suggestion 
to accomplish one, but the devs see it otherwise. (I'm not the one doing 
the coding, so I'm certainly not going to press the point)

A "Statement of Cash Flows" appears to be out-of-scope for GnuCash as it 
is likely required by firms that in all probability would not be using 
GnuCash, and instead, be using a proprietary high-end or custom package. 
GnuCash is not targeted or designed for such firms.

The report that GnuCash does include is certainly poorly named. (this 
has been discussed before, in that bug report if I recall, but no action 
has been taken to clean it up)

It can be used to show movement or 'flows' from or into one or more 
accounts and the source or destination of those flows. I don't care for 
the default options much, but with some careful crafting and selection 
of accounts, one can indeed see a personal 'cash flow' report.

As I mentioned though, without additional gymnastics, what so many other 
packages provide: a view of change in cash over time by period, is not 
available. (at least not by the 'Cash Flow' name. With careful planning, 
the 'Budget Flow' might get you close)

Regards,
Adrien

On 2/10/21 10:57 PM, doncram wrote:
> "GnuCash does have a Cash Flow report, but it is more general...."  *No,
> GnuCash does not have anything like the normal Statement of Cash Flows*
> expected by financial statements users.  A statement of cash flows is
> supposed to identify sources and uses of what would otherwise be "cash"
> (liquid funds) during a given period.  Operations, vs. Financing, vs.
> Investing.  So that a potential investor or lendor or whomever could
> understand better what is going on with the firm.  With a standard type of
> report that would show, in the Operations area, how much went into building
> inventory, or reducing accounts payable, or allowing accounts receivable to
> increase (presumably to support sales revenues).  Or how much "cash" was
> derived from reducing inventory (selling down stock without replacing it),
> increasing accounts payable (causing future problems), or forcing an
> increase in collections from customers (driving down sales), for example.
> What GnuCash offers is something total different, which I don't see as
> useful for any financial statement users that I know, which is a report on
> totals of transactions in vs. out of any group of balance sheet accounts
> (so I think one could get it to report on total $ inflows and outflows out
> of a group.
> 
> But, it simply doesn't capture many (most?) transactions that matter.
> Suppose the firm acquired $100k amount of inventory by a new line of credit
> with a supplier.  That should show as $100k usage of cash in operations,
> and $100k source of cash in financing.  Which GnuCash simply won't show;  I
> don't know what GnuCash's report would be useful for at all.
> 
> I think it would be fairly simple for GnuCash to be adapted to provide
> normal Statement of Cash Flows reporting, but it simply does not do that.
> Calling what GnuCash does as "more general" is misleading.
> 
> Hope this helps
> Don Cram