[GNC] Changing from one year to the next

[R Losey]

An interesting approach.

How do you deal with investments with this approach? You won't have
historical buying/selling/prices.



On Tue, Jan 20, 2026 at 12:47 PM Joseph St. Denis <stdenis0 at yahoo.com>
wrote:

> Hello all
>
> I usually create a new folder named the next year and create a new gnucash
> file using just the account set up from the previous year I do not close
> the year because some statements overlap years end date. I usually start
> the process of mid December with a new budget.
>
> All the best
>
> Joseph St Denis
>
> Yahoo Mail: Search, Organize, Conquer
> <https://mail.onelink.me/107872968?pid=nativeplacement&c=US_Acquisition_YMktg_315_SearchOrgConquer_EmailSignature&af_sub1=Acquisition&af_sub2=US_YMktg&af_sub3=&af_sub4=100002039&af_sub5=C01_Email_Static_&af_ios_store_cpp=0c38e4b0-a27e-40f9-a211-f4e2de32ab91&af_android_url=https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yahoo.mobile.client.android.mail&listing=search_organize_conquer>
>
> On Tue, Jan 20, 2026 at 12:34 PM, R Losey
> <rlosey at gmail.com> wrote:
> I added "Total (Period)" per Stan's information, and the Income, Expense,
> and Liabilities all seem to be working correctly. The Assets like bank and
> savings account also are correct (they are all in USD). The problem seems
> to be with the investment accounts, which have sub-accounts of stock with
> various prices; they don't seem to be totaling up correctly. As I don't run
> regular quote updates, so the price per share is only updated when there
> are transactions in that account. So, it might be related to the bug you
> mentioned, especially if it hasn't been fixe yet. I am running the current
> version of GnuCash (5.14).
>
> Or maybe it's my understanding: If I sell 100 shares at $10/share (thus
> $1,000) of stock A last week and transfer the funds to my cash account, I
> expect that the total for the period should be zero, with Stock A losing
> 100 shares at $10/share, and the cash fund increasing $1,000. The Total
> (Period) shows the decrease of 10 shares, and the increase of $1,000 in the
> cash account, but the total for the period shows something like down
> $10,000.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 20, 2026 at 5:42 AM Kalpesh Patel <kalpesh.patel at usa.net>
> wrote:
>
> > I recall a bug/feature in 4.x version where if you changed the accounting
> > period the COA totals would not reflect new period totals until after
> > another action is taken -- like update quotes. Also remember that there
> are
> > multiple total types (Total, Total(Period), Total (USD) , etc.) in COA so
> > selecting correct one is also necessary.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Stan Brown (using GC 4.14) <stan+gc at fastmail.fm>
> > Sent: Monday, January 19, 2026 8:30 PM
> > To: R Losey <rlosey at gmail.com>
> > Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > Subject: Re: [GNC] Changing from one year to the next
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > On Mon, Jan 19, 2026 at 12:41 PM Stan Brown (using GC 4.14)
> > > <stan+gc at fastmail.fm <mailto:stan%2Bgc at fastmail.fm>> wrote:
> > >
> > >    On 2026-01-19 10:18, R Losey wrote:
> > >    > 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).
> > >
> > >    Like you, I zero out income and expense accounts every year. But
> it's
> > >    not necessary to do that to see the totals for the current year.
> > That's
> > >    always possible on the Accounts pane, assuming you've set your
> > >    accounting period to start and end with the start and end of this
> > year.
> > >    (That's in Edit » Preferences » Accounting Period.)
> > >
> > >    To show the current period income and expenses in the Accounts pane,
> > >    clock the triangle at the extreme right of the headings and tick
> > "Total
> > >    (Period)".
> >
> >
> > On 2026-01-19 13:02, R Losey wrote:
> >
> > > True, Stan. I do have it set for current year, and that does work for
> > > income/expense... but not for categories under Assets or Liabilities.
> >
> > Are you sure about that? It sure looks to me like Asset and Liability
> > accounts show the amount of change, positive or negative, in the account
> > during the current period, just as for Income and Expense accounts. That
> > equivalence is less obvious, of course, if Income and Expense accounts
> > start each year at zero.
> >
> > For instance, my liability to Wells Fargo was $1073.77 on 2025-12-31 and
> > will be $724.90 on 2026-01-26. That is a reduction of $348.87, and
> > Total(Period) shows $(348.87), just as I would expect.
> >
> > Stan Brown
> > Tehachapi, CA, USA
> > https://BrownMath.com
> >
> >
> >
>
> --
> _________________________________
> Richard Losey
> rlosey at gmail.com
> Micah 6:8
>
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-- 
_________________________________
Richard Losey
rlosey at gmail.com
Micah 6:8