[GNC] scheduled transactions: simple or compound interest calculations in

[Adrien Monteleone]

I could be misunderstanding the desired goal.

Do you want the interest portion to be calculated on the immediate 
deposit or on the entire account balance?

If the immediate deposit, you would simply add a split for the interest 
and indicate the amount. (since it is fixed, the rate is irrelevant as 
the math always produces the same result, thus no formula is needed.)

If on the account balance at the time, you can prompt yourself for that 
as a variable and let GnuCash do the math.

The interest split would in this case have a formula instead of a fixed 
amount but where the current balance would appear you simply use a word 
say 'balance' and gnucash will treat that as a variable. When the 
transaction fires, GnuCash will prompt you to enter the balance amount 
to be used in the formula.

Create a copy of your file and do a test transaction as practice if it 
helps.

-----
Note, the example you cite of adding code to a Scheme file is a much 
more advanced approach and it appears to be for a more complicated 
situation than you are describing.
-----
The first transaction in just about any Asset or Liability account will 
be to Equity:Opening Balances. This is fairly standard accounting practice.

In double-entry, money does not appear or disappear. It moves from one 
account to another. With respect to Opening Balance, you think of it as 
a reason or explanation more than a source or destination account if 
that helps.


Regards,
Adrien

On 10/20/23 2:38 PM, Name Same wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> I am new to gnucash, so please pardon me if this sounds too simple a
> question.
> 
> How do I schedule transactions to automatically add a percentage interest
> for a fixed deposit for a fixed deposit account?
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_deposit
> 
> The material on how to enter/use simple or compound interest formulas in
> scheduled translation is not clear. Here are the links I found: 1)
> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Scheduled_Transactions#Bank_Account_Interest,
> and 2) https://code.gnucash.org/docs/C/gnucash-guide/invest_int1.html
> 
> Link 2) doesn't have a screenshot that shows what entries were made in the
> fields/forms to calculate interest, and shows just the result.
> 
> Another side problem I face is: When I create a fixed deposit account with
> an initial amount, the scheduled transaction template for some reason keeps
> adding "opening balance" to the transactions. How do I just schedule
> interest deposits based on opening balance of fixed deposit account?