[GNC] Modifying the Register

[Michael or Penny Novack]

> "Closing the books" is a formal accounting procedure originating
> primarily in the days of manual accounting in paper ledgers. As others
> have pointed out, Gnucash carries out the necessary calculations in its
> reports so there is no real need to carry out the formal procedure.

For the (VERY COMMON) special case where the entity has exactly ONE 
"OWNER". In other words, when using gnucash for personal books, 
organizational books, and businesses which are sole proprietorships.

Otherwise NOT true. All the other possibilities for entities have more 
than one owner. They must track not only total equity but how that 
equity is divided among the several owners. In that case it will be 
necessary to do an actual close the books (close income and expense 
accounts to total equity) in order to distribute that change in equity 
to the equity account of each owner.

Michael D Novack