[GNC] Why does an Equity account have to be of Currency type?

[km22]

Hi Jim,

In the end, I have decided to simply treat my mock trust or mock company
with a cash equity injection.

But question is more general.  Let's say I join Robinson Crusoe on a
remote island and we decide our economy will be denominated in silver
coins (of which I had 12 in my pocket when I washed ashore on his
island).  If I were to do my accounting in GnuCash I would need to start
with an Opening Balance of 12 coins (my first transaction would need to
be Assets:Coins 12, Equity:Opening Balance 12), Gnucash does not let me
do this.  The software will only allow the Equity accounts to be of ISO
currency type.  Why not let the user denominate an Equity account in any
asset they like - silver coins if that is what they want?

Thanks,

Ken

P.S. Please excuse this badly formatted email - I had to copy and paste
your text from the Archive as I seem to have deleted the original reply.


------------------------------

Message: 8
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 13:05:04 -0700
From: Jim DeLaHunt<list+gnucash at jdlh.com>
To:gnucash-user at gnucash.org
Subject: Re: [GNC] Why does an Equity account have to be of Currency
	type?
Message-ID:<29e7cc91-fdb1-ccb9-daf2-f5e177392124 at jdlh.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed

On 2022-04-23 02:46, km22 wrote:

> ?I am starting a new Gnucash file for a simple "mock" trust.? The trust
> holds physical assets (like stamps and coins and other collectibles).? I
> want to represent the contributions to this trust in the form of these
> assets.? However, when I try to create new Equity accounts for the
> contributions it only allows me to use "Currency" type assets.?

Your Gnucash usage question leads me to an accounting question. And I am
not an accountant, so my ignorance is likely vast. However?

Why should the accounts which track the physical assets be Equity
accounts?? Why not make them Asset accounts?

And then, David Cousens points out that what you need to track physical
assets is an inventory application, and GnuCash is not an inventory
application. How does that inform your use of GnuCash?




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On 23/4/2022 17:46, km22 wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am starting a new Gnucash file for a simple "mock" trust.  The trust
> holds physical assets (like stamps and coins and other collectibles). 
> I want to represent the contributions to this trust in the form of
> these assets.  However, when I try to create new Equity accounts for
> the contributions it only allows me to use "Currency" type assets.  I
> don't understand why Gnucash would force this limitation.  Why
> wouldn't a user be allowed to use any asset type they wish (stocks,
> bitcoin, collectables) and not solely the ISO cash types?
>
> A screenshot of the issue is attached.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ken
>