[GNC] Changing from one year to the next

[R Losey]

Well, you need to consider what you mean by "transition from one year to
the next" and WHY you think you need to do this.

If you are  worried about a huge datafile ==> don't worry about this: I
have been using GnuCash for 9 years now and my file is a mere 2.8M.

If you just want to archive off the state of your finances, then I would
suggest closing down GnuCash, and then copying your data file to a
end-of-year file: If you file is "MyGNUcash.gnucash", create a copy of it
called "MyGNCcash_EOY2025.gnucash" - you can even mark it read-only if you
wish. Before doing that, it may be worthwhile to open that file and to
disable any scheduled transactions you have (it would be rough to open it
in a year or two and have years of scheduled transactions pending).

There is a end-of-year closeout in which income and expense accounts are
zeroed (by rolling them into Equity). This is not necessary to do for
GnuCash to work, but some people like doing it (I am one that does - it
makes Income and Expense account totals reflect only the current year).
This is the "Close Book" command under the Tools menu  that others have
mentioned... you can also do it by hand for each income & expense account.

Bottom line: You probably don't need to do anything to "transition from one
year to the next" (other than remembering to use the right date!!)




On Sun, Jan 18, 2026 at 8:16 PM Monroe Bryant <monroe.bryant0414 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Where do I find, in the manual, how to transition from one year to the
> next rather than just continuing.
>
> Monroe Bryant
> Sent from my iPad Air
>
> "We [the people] are the 1st-responders;
> the police are our backup!"    Glenn Beck, 2013
>
> Please show your e-mail savvy by respecting and protecting the privacy of
> all parties. When Forwarding, use "BCC" and press "Send" only AFTER you
> have deleted all extraneous email addresses from this email. It's the smart
> way to share.
>
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> -----
> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>


-- 
_________________________________
Richard Losey
rlosey at gmail.com
Micah 6:8