[GNC] User defined currencies in "Expense Accounts"

[Gyle McCollam]

As to #3, I track my utilities with a spreadsheet in Libre Office.  What are you trying to track, kwh usage or cost per kwh?  In my spreadsheet I track both, plus differences with last year.  In Gnucash you could put this info in the "notes" field, but reporting on tis info I'm not sure about.  Another way that won't screw up your financial reporting is to set up subaccounts under electric.  One account for say kwh and a contra account for the -kwh.  You could record the kwh used in the first and the opposite value in the contra so they net to zero and don't affect financial reporting.  That way you could get a report on just the positive account for usage.  I myself would use the spreadsheet approach.


Thank You,

Gyle McCollam

Gyle McCollam

gmccollam at live.com<mailto:gmccollam at gyleshomes.com>           email

________________________________
From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+gylemc=gmail.com at gnucash.org> on behalf of Charles Crossan <crossan007 at gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 12, 2023 10:51 AM
To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
Subject: [GNC] User defined currencies in "Expense Accounts"

While doing my monthly ritual of breaking down my utility bill into
GNUcash, I had the idea of using a user defined currency for electricity
(Kilowatt Hours - kWh) and Water (gallons).  I'd like to be able to chart
my "real usage" as well as rate fluctuations.

I've been using GNUCash for over 10 years, and have created a bunch of
custom currencies for stocks / etc; however, this is the first time I
thought about using it for tracking utility units.

I got as far as creating the kWh currency when I realized that there's no
way to choose a "non ISO 4217" currency for expense accounts.

The GNUCash documentation seems to indicate that Income and Expense
accounts are only able to use "National Currencies" (12.2.1.1. User-Defined
Currencies -
https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v4/C/gnucash-guide/currency_manual.html
<https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v4/C/gnucash-guide/currency_manual.html>).

I'm wondering:

   1. Is there a functional reason for this requirement; or is it an
   arbitrary UI restriction?
   2. Would the application behave erratically if I were to manually edit
   the expense account in SQL to use my own currency?
   3. How is everyone else handling utility tracking?  I realize I'm
   probably a tad crazy for wanting this level of detail.

--
Thanks,
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