[GNC] ASSETS

[Michael or Penny Novack]

On 1/10/2023 11:24 AM, davidbrown.rdps at photos.bozeat.biz wrote:
> Thank you Michael for your reply .... it is a GNU question...  We are a small club and a couple of assets were missed in the "brought forward balance" when starting with this App a couple of years ago, so they are listed in the balance sheet.  We haven't depreciated them as this is noted in our EoY.  It acts as a list of equipment at he same time.
>
> When I put them in the Equipment A/c it does a CR and DR at the same time which I don't want.  A single entry to increase the assets without having to buy them.
>
> I need the GNU App to add a couple of items that are of value to be represented at EoY.

David, it is an accounting question, not a gnucash question << you would 
have EXACTLY the same question were you still in the old days when I 
learned pen and ink on accounting ruled paper >>

You are (actually) asking "how do I add assets that were forgotten when 
the books were created?"

Correct, you are not (now) buying them. You are making what is 
misleadingly called a "journal entry". An entry affecting equity. They 
were in your original balance sheet (pre-gnucash) but were not entered 
THEN with a starting balance. So you do it now.

You create an asset account for these under "fixed assets" (create if 
you do not have). You can create this account with a zero balance. You 
presumably have an account "starting balance" under equity (if you used 
the wizard; entered accounts with starting balances when you created 
your gnucash books. But if you like, you can create another child of 
equity with a name like "corrections" << it is NOT unusual to have to 
deal with odd situations* >>

You now enter a transaction debiting "fixed assets" for these and 
crediting "corrections" with a description explaining the transaction.

Michael D Novack

* To give an example, an  uncorrectable bank error. One of my 
organizations paid an expense for an amount, let's say $100.30 The 
recipient deposited the check in his bank (where correctly credited 
$100.30). These days, the paper checks no longer flow back, just an 
electronic transaction bank to bank to bank. Somehow, it arrived at our 
bank as $100.00 so that is what was taken from the organization's 
account. What to do about that $0.30 OOB? Communication with the banks 
at both ends determined that the error was not correctable as neither of 
these banks made the error and the banks in the middle not known << I 
imagine had to been 30 million rather than 30 cents they would have done 
what was necessary to find out where >>

What to do? Well COULD have treated the error as "income". But a more 
sensible solution was a transaction between "bank account" and equity.