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

[km22]

Hi Michael,

I agree - I could change the definition of $ for the purposes of the Robinson Crusoe case.  But let me ask the question a different way:

It seems that when trying to create an account of type Asset, Bank, Cash, Credit Card, Liability, A/Receivable, A/Payable, Equity selecting the denominated "Security/currency" only allows the user to select a Currency Type.
For account types Stock and Mutual Fund the "Security/currency" is only allowed to be of a Non-Currency Type.

Why is that restriction necessary?  Why can't you have a Bank account that is denominated in silver taels*?  Or a cash account denominated in "Disney Dollars"?  Or contribute Equity to a business in the form of yards of lumber?

Perhaps the answer is to simply use a "Stock" account type for my asset examples?  But there is no workaround for the equity example.  And it seems like an artificial limitation within the software - unless I am missing the reason this should not be permitted (either from an software implementation or accounting perspective).

Thanks,
Ken



* Yes, I could use this ISO currency XAG but that price typically refers to troy ounces and it might be that I want to mark the bid price of a silver savings account at a premium or discount to the XAG price.


P.S. For some reason I am not receiving replies direct to my email so I am copying and pasting from the GnuCash archive below.



Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2022 13:17:08 -0400
From: Michael or Penny Novack
To:gnucash-user at gnucash.org
Subject: Re: [GNC] Why does an Equity account have to be of Currency
	type?
Message-ID:<521f2821-4532-0ac2-81a2-4a4f9400cdc8 at comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed


> 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?

It DOES allow this if you refuse to accept the magical meaning of "$"
(or any other symbol).

Declare a law on the island, "$ is the symbol for a silver coin".? The
fact that other people in other lands understand $ to stand for USD is
irrelevant to island life. You are acting as if it made a difference in
algebra whether you used "X"or "Y" to stand for an unknown variable.

But you are actually wanting something else. You are wanting in one set
of books more than one type of currency? at the same time. That gnucash
does not support, but that is more a limitation of accounting than of
gnucash. You CAN be accounting for more than one sort of :currency" at
the same time, but if not exchangeable, not in the same set of books <<
guncash will let you have any number of books >>

Michael D Novack



On 25/4/2022 22:24, km22 wrote:
>
> 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?
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
> 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
>>