[GNC] Starting from scratch

[Clint Chaplin]

As far as normal cash/creditcard/check transactions, yes, a clean break
would be OK for me.  For stocks and Mutual Funds and Roth IRAs, not so much
(at least, for me)

On Mon, Apr 27, 2026 at 6:52 PM Ken Pyzik <pyz01 at outlook.com> wrote:

> Clint — there are several ways to skin this cat.  I think what is most
> important is to decide what do you want to track.
>
> If you want to track 40-years of transaction - I could ask why - but if
> that's what you want, I guess importing all of those into the system would
> be the way to go.  But go back to really think what you want.
>
> Here is what I am suggesting.  When I started on GnuCash -coming from
> Quicken - back about 15 years ago or so, I decided to make a clean break.
> I jotted down the balances as they were as of a certain day - call it your
> starting date - balanced the system - and went from there.  Also for
> mortgage - you can use the running/accumulated balances as of the start
> date.  If you can't figure them out - your mortgage company should have
> that information.
>
> For historical purposes, I did import some transactions from quicken into
> an EXCEL file so that I would have them for historical purposes.  BUT - I
> minimized these because the tax laws in the US say you only need 7 years of
> history (for personal).  Now - if this is a business - totally different
> story.  Regulatory concerns may make you keep some records forever.  The
> best part is - these do not have to be electric - so you have options.  But
> you do have to have some financial records forever.
>
> Once you have the "historical" records piece sorted out, then you can
> begin to strategize how to move forward.  As I said -everyone has their own
> way - my way was a complete break and I only imported records for the
> beginning of my calendar year (which was almost nothing since I did the
> conversion in January of that year).   That was 15 years ago and I have
> never looked back.
>
> As for setup — GNU's chart of accounts is pretty good.  But again - me
> being a minimalist — I just did my own.
>
> Hope this information is helpful.
> ------------------------------
> *From:* gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+pyz01=outlook.com at gnucash.org>
> on behalf of Clint Chaplin <joatmon at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Monday, April 27, 2026 8:12 AM
> *To:* Gnucash Users <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> *Subject:* [GNC] Starting from scratch
>
> Hi, (soon to be) new user here.  I have almost 40 years of transactions, in
> programs that are incapable of exporting, so I'll have to start entering
> them in manually.
>
> What strategies have people used in the past when starting up GnuCash?  I
> sorta understand for normal "cash" transactions I can probably just start
> entering in transactions for the current year, but can the starting balance
> be changed as I work my way backwards?
>
> For stocks and mutual funds, should I start at the beginning and work my
> way forward?  I'm not sure just how clean it is to start entering current
> transactions and then work my way backwards, especially given that account
> fees are taken FIFO from the first purchase in the mutual fund.
>
> Mortgage may be interesting, or simple.
>
> BTW, USA user.
>
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.
> --
> Clint (JOATMON) Chaplin
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-- 
Clint (JOATMON) Chaplin