[GNC] How to run Year End Procedures for the Tax Year (UK end 5 April 2023), and start new Data set for the New Tax Year starting 6 April 2023

[Stan Brown]

On 2023-04-07 14:09, Michael or Penny Novack wrote:
> 
> The point is, if you ever want to look at the books in their state prior
> to the 2023 close you don't undo anything. Instead you retrieve the
> back-up and open a copy of that.

That's certainly possible, and I agree it's much better than undoing
things. But there's a very large caveat:

When you open GnuCash, it opens the file you were working on most
recently. So you need to be very sure that you have opened the file you
intended to, after you have finished whatever you wanted to do with the
pre-closing file.

My advice: when you're working on the pre-closing file, don't close
GnuCash. Instead, close that file, open your current file, and _then_
close GnuCash.

If you're like me (and like several people every month who run into this
and ask about it on the mailing list) you're used to having your current
file open when you open GnuCash, and you may not notice if some other
file opens.

That's why I recommend closing the pre-closing file and opening your
current file before you close GC. Sure, if you have to work on your
pre-closing file again, you'll have to open it again, which is an extra
step. But at least you're never in the position of entering a bunch of
transactions and _then_ discovering that you weren't in the file you
meant to be in.

P.S. There's a workaround for this in Windows, and I believe in Linux as
well. Put the name of your current file on the GnuCash command line
(which is probably inside a shortcut if you're running Windows), and
when GC starts it will open that file regardless of which file you were
working on last. (In MacOS, the file on the command line is ignored.)

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