[GNC] How to enter zero-share transaction splits in an Asset:Stock account?

[Derek Atkins]

HI,

On Sun, February 28, 2021 3:17 pm, Evelyn Yamanaka wrote:
> I'm trying to enter a split with zero shares in a stock account for the
> purpose of manually recording capital gains/losses. I'm using GnuCash 4.4
> on Win 10.
>
> According to the gnucash-guide documentation:
> -----
> In order for GnuCash to commit the zero-share, zero-price split for
> account
> Assets:Stock:SYMBOL to the transaction in the following schemes, you
> *must*
> Tab out of that
> split. If you use the Enter key, GnuCash will convert the split into
> shares
> of the commodity
> -----
>
> However, when I do this, the share and price columns are
> STILL automatically populated with non-zero amounts.
>
> In detail, I am doing this:
> 1. Click on a new transaction
> 2. Enter date, <TAB>
> 3. <TAB> out of [Num]
> 4. Enter transaction description, <TAB>
> 5. (Advance to first split) <TAB> out of [Action]
> 6. Enter split description, <TAB>
> 7. ([Account] auto-populated with current account) <TAB> out of [Account]
> 8. <TAB> out of [Shares], leaving it blank

Don't do this.  Enter a '0' here explicitly.

> 9. <TAB> out of [Price], leaving it blank
> 10. Enter "100" into [Debit], <TAB>
> 11. <TAB> out of [Credit]
>
> At this point, the next line / split is activated. However, [Shares] from
> the split I just left is automatically populated with the amount I entered
> in [Debit]. The same thing happens if I enter a value for [Credit]
> instead.
> Essentially, I cannot leave the first split without [Shares] automatically
> taking the value from either [Credit] or [Debit].

Correct. There are 3 important fields:  #Shares, Price, and Debit/Credit. 
 Only #Shares and Debit/Credit is stored, the Price is *always* computed,
so generally it is best to enter those two fields.

GnuCash sort-of requires you to enter two of those three.  If you only
enter one field (e.g. DebCred), then it assumes a share price of 1 and you
get the behavior you observed.  However, if you explicitly enter 0 in the
#shares column, then you will have entered 2 column data and GnuCash will
take them as you entered them.

If you enter all three, it will complain and ask you which to use.

> At no point in this process have I hit <Enter>.
>
> I know there is the option to use automatic lots to create capital
> gain/loss transactions. However, I'm recording past SpecID transactions
> for
> which individual lot information is not available, and the number and
> complexity of those transactions make it impractical to reverse engineer
> specific lot information. Therefore, I'm trying to manually record
> realized
> capital gains/losses without assigning them to specific lots. However, the
> inability to enter zero-share transactions into Asset:Stock accounts is
> preventing me from doing this.

I hope my explanation above helped!

> 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