[GNC] Newby questions opening accounts

[Adrien Monteleone]

On 1/15/21 11:53 PM, Peter S. Shenkin wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I've recently volunteered to take over as treasurer of a non-profit. The
> previous treasurer was keeping his accounts with a different (tty-based)
> system and I wanted to try Gnucash instead.
> 
> 1. After having set up my accounts, I looked at the documentation and saw
> that Opening Balances are supposed to be entered when accounts are first
> created. Is there a workaround, or do I have to go through the whole
> account setup process again? And what do you do if you make a mistake! (No
> transactions have been made so far.)

There is nothing special about an Opening Balances entry. It is simply a 
transaction balanced between whatever account is in question and 
"Equity:Opening Balances", and can be entered at any time after the 
initial setup, if not done during setup.
> 
> 2. I wanted to keep Equity under Liabilities (only because the previous
> treasurer was doing this), but after I put it there (with the Opening
> Balances subaccount beneath it), GnuCash created a top-level Opening
> Balances account. When I delete it, it comes back. Is there a way I can use
> the schema with Equity under Liabilities?

I am not certain, but that is certainly not standard accounting 
behavior/practice as I understand it.

The 'basic' accounting equation is: Assets = Liability + Equity

Therefore, Equity is not a sub-account of Liability, but its own 
'top-level' account. It should not be (maybe depending on legal 
jurisdiction) listed under Liability.
> 
> 3. Is there a way to set the top-level display order of accounts other than
> by using the "optional" account numbering scheme and ordering by the
> numbers?

Not sure what you are trying to accomplish. Can you be more specific?

Regards,
Adrien