[GNC] totals for a parent account and all its children

[Brad Morrison]

Hi Tim, Michael, Penny, R, David W, David T, GR, Stan, Mark, Tommy, &
others, 

https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Custom_Reports - it looks like there is a
lot of information on the GNUCash Wiki about "Custom Reports," but it is
pretty technical  

https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/WishList#Reports_and_Charts - there is
also this section of the GNUCash Wiki on some "Wish List" items about
various reports 

Does anyone that has commented so far on this mailing list topic also
use & edit the GNUCash Wiki? 

---
Thanks, 

Brad - https://www.facebook.com/brad.morrison.12327/ &
https://nextdoor.com/profile/01mP46jj8KCzj3sP4 &
https://norcal.social/@BradMorrison 

On 2025-05-19 09:48, R Losey wrote:

> On Sun, May 18, 2025 at 9:37 AM Michael or Penny Novack <
> stepbystepfarm at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
>> It would be very helpful if (and maybe there already is) there was a place
>> that would say what would be the usual or common options for the reports.
>> For example, I think the transaction report should include all the expense
>> accounts.
>> 
>> Just a bit of guidance would be incredibly helpful.
>> 
>> I'm sure that there are other reports that would be helpful, but I don't
>> know if I should select everything, or just the asset accounts, or the
>> income accounts, or.... (and so on).
>> 
>> Misunderstanding. Gnucash is a TOOL for partially automating double entry
>> bookkeeping. In terms of how such systems are called, "general ledger"
>> 
>> Take ANY Tool, say a hammer. The manual for a hammer might tell you what
>> it is for (drive nails) and how to properly use it (grip, etc.). Out of
>> scope for the hammer manual to teach you "what is a nail used for?" "why
>> would I want to use a nail" etc.
>> 
>> What you are needing is something along the lines of "what is double entry
>> bookkeeping?" describing things like what are the usual reports, how are
>> they formatted, etc. Things that  are NOT specific to gnucash. In other
>> words, if we are talking about a report such as "Profit and Loss", what it
>> looks like, what's included in it, etc. that is independent of how the
>> double entry "general ledger" is kept. Thus the report ends up looking the
>> same (same data in it) whether produced by gnucash or manually during the
>> process of "closing the books" the books being pen and ink on paper (as it
>> was when I learned ~65 years ago).
>> 
>> Sorry, gnucash makes the work of double entry bookkeeping easier, but you
>> still have to learn about double entry bookkeeping.
>> 
>> Michael D Novack
> 
> Having come from a Quicken background, where reports work "out of the box",
> the reports in GnuCash have been difficult.
> 
> I know that I have gaps in my understanding of accounting and bookkeeping.
> I have had very little problems using GnuCash's double-entry method.
> 
> But you are correct in that I am lacking knowledge in some of the report
> areas - I don't think that is a lack of knowledge of double-entry
> accounting, however.
> 
> Just did some searching using "double entry accounting reports" and all
> that is returned is the very basic information about what double-entry
> accounting is, with nothing about reporting.