[GNC] Add top-level account for both Income (Revenue) and Expenses (Other [Non-Operating] Income And Expenses)

[Stan Brown]

The new top-level account is for _Non-Operating_ income and expenses. As
such, I would make it an equity account. I agree with you, though, that
it should definitely be a placeholder.

What I'm not clear on is why it must be a top-level account. To me it
sure looks like what we called Extraordinary Income (in the accounting
sense, where "Income" is the net of income and expenses) -- for
instance, the gain or loss if they sell a piece of equipment that they
no longer need. That could have the main Equity account as its parent.

The OP could do some experimentation. But, like you, I'm concerned about
how well the reports would cope with a sixth top-level account.

Stan Brown
Tehachapi, CA, USA
https://BrownMath.com

On 2022-12-25 15:02, David Cousens wrote:
> Michael 
> 
> If you select the Parent account as a "New top level account" in the New account
> dialogue you can create a new top level account. You would select its type as
> Income and mark it as a Placeholder. You can then create Income and Expense
> accounts under it as required. Not sure how this would affect the reports
> however. Someone else may be able to comment on that.
> 
> David Cousens
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, 2022-12-25 at 17:54 +0000, gnucash_2022 at michaelaltfield.net wrote:
>> How do I create a top-level account in GNU Cash that can hold both Income
>> *and* Expenses in its subaccounts?
>>
>> IFRS (and US GAAP) don't directly publish example Chart of Accounts, but I
>> find it common to use some standard top-level account number prefixes. For
>> example:
>>
>>  * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chart_of_accounts#Example_Chart_of_Accounts
>>  * https://www.ifrs-gaap.com/universal-chart-accounts-0
>>
>> 1.0.0 - Assets
>> 2.0.0 - Liabilities
>> 3.0.0 - Equity
>> 4.0.0 - Operating Revenue
>> 5.0.0 - Operating Expenses
>> 6.0.0 - Other (Non-Operating) Income And Expenses
>>  \_ 6.1.0 Other Revenue And Expenses
>>    \_ 6.1.1 Other Revenue
>>    \_ 6.1.2 Other Expenses
>>
>> The GNU Cash docs say that an account must be one of five account types
>>
>>> As we saw in the previous chapter, accounting is based on 5 basic account
>>> types: Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income and Expenses.
>>>
>>> ...
>>>
>>> A GnuCash account must have a unique name (that you assign) and one of the
>>> predefined GnuCash “account types”. There are a total of 12 account types in
>>> GnuCash. These 12 account types are based on the 5 basic accounting types;
>>> the reason there are more GnuCash account types than basic accounting types
>>> is that this allows GnuCash to perform specialized tracking and handling of
>>> certain accounts. There are 6 asset accounts (Cash, Bank, Stock, Mutual
>>> Fund, Accounts Receivable, and Other Assets), 3 liability accounts (Credit
>>> Card, Accounts Payable, and Liability), 1 equity account (Equity), 1 income
>>> account (Income), and 1 expense account (Expenses).
>>
>> (source
>> https://gnucash-docs-rst.readthedocs.io/en/latest/guide/C/ch_accts.html?highlight=account%20types
>> )
>>
>> While it's trivial to create the first five accounts in GNU Cash, I can't find
>> a way to add a top-level account for `6.0.0 - Other (Non-Operating) Income And
>> Expenses` -- which itself needs to hold both Income *and* Expense sub-
>> accounts.
>>
>> How can I structure my GNU Cash Accounts with a top-level account named `6.0.0
>> Other (Non-Operating) Income And Expenses` that can contain *both* an Income
>> sub-account (eg `6.1.0 Other Revenue`) and Expenses (eg `6.1.2 Other
>> Expenses`)?
>>
>> (see also
>> https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/154324/add-top-level-account-for-both-income-revenue-and-expenses-other-non-operat