[GNC] Rounding issues with Stock

[John Ralls]

The issue here is rounding. GnuCash enforces a minimum fraction on all commodities. For most currencies that fraction is 1/100; a few, e.g. Japanese Yen, it’s 1/1. Most mutual funds have a minimum fraction of 1/1000, most stocks have fractions of 1/—though DRIP accounts will pretend to have fractional shares for accumulation purposes.

The remaining variable, Price, has no minimum fraction and has a resolution of 1/9223372036854775808. If you enter the number of shares and the amount of currency (GnuCash designates that the value) and let GnuCash calculate the price there’s no need for rounding anything: The price will be exact. If you enter the price in any normal way and leave it to GnuCash to calculate the shares or the value then you have a good chance of forcing GnuCash to round the result because the computed amount or value will have a fraction whose denominator is smaller than the minimum for the commodity. 

Regards,
John Ralls


> On Aug 26, 2024, at 17:55, Derek Atkins <derek at ihtfp.com> wrote:
> 
> GnuCash only maintains the number of shares and the total value.  The
> per-share price is /always/ computed.
> 
> When you are entering a transaction, GnuCash allows you to enter any two
> values and it will compute the third -- however it still only stores #
> shares and total value.
> 
> IANAA, but IMHO you should worry about the #shares and total value and
> don't worry about the rounding difference in the per-share price.
> 
> NB: GnuCash will not keep track of the $0.0036
> 
> -derek
> 
> On Mon, August 26, 2024 8:38 pm, NS wrote:
>> First, let me tell you I am a recent user of GNUCash, and by no means I am
>> a bookkeeper or know a lot about accounting.
>> I am using the tool to keep control of some stock I own.
>> 
>> Here is my issue.
>> I have a DRIP on the stock. My broker says the reinvested price of each
>> share was $26.4884, and they bought 4 shares for a total value of
>> $105.9536.
>> 
>> Now, I cannot enter four decimals in the buy (I do not know if it is a
>> setting), even though the price handles them.
>> When I recorded the transaction in GNUCash y entered 4 shares and a buy of
>> $105.95 and a price of $26.4875 was calculated.
>> 
>> If I enter 4 shares and the price of $26.4884, it recalculates it to
>> $26.4875.
>> 
>> How do I solve this? I want to keep track of the correct numbers.
>> 
>> Thanks for your help.
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> 
> 
> -- 
>       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
>       derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
>       Computer and Internet Security Consultant
> 
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