[GNC] Do I treat a managed investment account as stocks, or no?

[Michael or Penny Novack]

On 5/8/2026 12:05 PM, Louise wrote:
> Thanks Adrien,
>
> I'm trying to break my habit of making s more complicated than they 
> need to be, so single fund it is!!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Louise

Also consider, the gnucash program will support multiple books (as many 
as you want). That means you can have a  main/master set of books and a 
number of subsidiary books. Only the totals of the subsidiary books get 
entered into the main books, not all the detail.

This is NOT a new idea. Even back in the days of pen and ink on paper 
usual to have subsidiary books like "petty cash" and/or "cashbook" (for 
transactions JUST involving cash/bank and the most popular accounts). In 
a way, gnucash is like "cashbook accounting" (no journal) extended to 
the entire ledger) for transactions just involving two accounts << we 
who learned in the old days recognize that >>

So ... you could use a separate set of books to track the managed fund 
so you could see that detail with only then nets in your main books. 
Somebody like myself whose fund offers LOTS of investment options might 
want to do that.

You can even have virtual books (our solar system has virtual existence 
as if it were an actual business entity operating on a loan from us 
(since paid off) and  providing us with "income" << electric bill 
amounts we do NOT have to pay as well as actual income from sale of 
SRECs >> We also have a set of books for our donations as if that were a 
"donor directed fund" making both deductible and non-deductible 
donations. The main books need only THOSE totals, not the details of 
which organization received how much << but the donations book makes 
that detail available if needed >>

It is one thing in the main to hide unnecessary detail (like the sub 
accounts under "auto expense". But if a hundred or two accounts would be 
hidden, a good case for a subsidiary book.

Michael D Novack