Re: [GNC] envelope method, equity sub-accounts, cash vs. hybrid vs. accrual accounting
Thanks Christopher for pointing me to that discussion, which is roughly about requesting an envelope method be implemented into GnuCash. I am just beginning to test the budget features within GnuCash. What i see at first looks reasonable: when you begin to create a new budget it provides a big spreadsheet view, with columns for months going forward, and rows for each of your revenue and expense accounts, and you can start editing in what your budget is for each expense for each month. This seems normal and useful. The documentation (GnuCash Tutorial and Concept Guide's chapter 14 on Budgets and its section on budget reports within chapter 10 Reports) doesn't go very far yet. It doesn't give any example, and the reports it mentions sound like they are only reports of budgeted numbers put in, but those named reports . It doesn't mention any report showing Budget vs. Actual amounts for a given period, but I assume something like that must exist. I will test more, and hopefully will find that it is a pretty complete, normal system, i.e. implementing budgeting as covered in managerial accounting textbooks. One can do budgeting and compare budgets to actuals in a spreadsheet outside of GnuCash; it would be nice if the GnuCash features do in fact give nice reporting of budgets vs. actuals, etc., that might meet the needs of some small nonprofits or businesses. About implementing some "envelope method" approach, I think that would be very radical, and that it would not be reasonable to devote programming effort to it before it was proven to be useful in real life. I haven't see it demonstrated in a spreadsheet-based example, even. Are there such? My first browsing finds no academic articles, and only a few blog-type mentions. One of those is by a person named Chris Lam asserting it is a thing ( https://smallbusiness.chron.com/double-entry-accounting-vs-envelope-system-34783.html ), but it sounds like it is meant as a thing for a firm which does not have double-entry bookkeeping. If it is a thing, I suspect it is only a thing for entities like households that wouldn't be using GnuCash. There is blog "How to Use the Envelope Budgeting Method" at https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-envelope-budgeting-1293682 , which claims software exists and links to a blog at https://www.thebalance.com/you-need-a-budget-4-budgeting-software-review-1293601 which recommends use of YNAB software (You Need A Budget) This blog article gives no example reports but describes a process involving your setting envelope amounts (equivalent to your setting budget amounts for each type of expense) and then entering transactions as the period goes along, so that the software can report how much remains in each envelope. This seems equivalent to, and no better than, a regular budget vs. actuals report, which likewise shows the budget slack for each type of expense. Even if there is no substantial difference, perhaps there is a way for YNAB to format reports which seems nicer for some? Andrew Marder in https://blog.capterra.com/simple-small-business-accounting-using-the-envelope-method-to-save-time-and-cash/ describes a small business literally using envelopes, upon which each expense/usage of cash is written, with the receipt being put inside. He observes this may be a gentle way for a mini-business to start, on the way to getting a real accounting system. Another article, https://www.moneycrashers.com/envelope-budgeting-system/ , by Casey Slide, a self-described stay-at-home mom, is actually recommending to switch from a regular budgeting system (in which there may be no real prevention of overspending), to a system with cash only, literally, put into real envelopes. With no use of credit/debit cards at all. This is just like the classic recommendation that to get control of their spending, a person should start by cutting up all their credit cards, so they can't run up charges. And further they're supposed to really stop spending in one category when its envelope is empty, without borrowing from another. This is, like, motivational, not practical; I guess it could work for, like, the classic example of a rich woman having a big allowance from her husband, where her spending is really discretionary, when the husband gets mad and limits her to only spending from an allowance for the month given in cash, with resolve that he won't give her more. Any nonprofit or small business is not like that, cannot operate that way even as an exercise for any period of time, but cause it just can't stop spending in a category when spending has to be done. Christopher, thanks. If you could expand on any advantage of what the reporting might look like, or explain any advantage for an envelope-inspired approach, that would be great. Or could you point me to any article/blog that actually gives example reports? But I am not any more convinced that any envelope method should be mentioned anywhere in GnuCash, much less implemented in so
Re: [GNC] GnuCash and Swedish accounting legislation
Okay, noted that my post with self-labelled rant was outside bounds accepted by this community. Just enclosing in "begin rant", "end rant" doesn't change that. What I did wrong included, at least, that I characterized two groups and that I cast aspersions and applied negative adjectives, personalizing stuff. I can see that is not good behavior, and I do apologize. I tried, within the post, to mitigate what i did say, but that wasn't adequate, and it wasn't funny. I apologize especially to those I did offend, and I would like to make amends if possible, if i come to know more particulars. I was already on pause, wasn't going to comment any more that way, given Jim DeLaHunt's prompt and constructive feedback, including his suggestion to frame it differently, in terms of discussion about target users and "scope of usage conditions" and more, which I needed to think about. And there was point made that this forum is far from being like many others on the internet, and Jim commented on apparent arrogance and assumptions on my part, which I really do need to think about. Anyhow, I had let myself be aggravated/frustrated by a couple references to the long-running nature of disagreement, need for a FAQ about it, etc. And I had thought it would be okay to share a bald characterization of the situation/issue. I dunno about my completely being wrong to ever take such an approach, call it a boisterous one, if this were some other forum, but it is not, and I realize I basically don't have standing here to be that way at all. So, I am really sorry. And thank you for considering this. I am open to off-email-list comments or suggestions, too. sincerely, Don Cram On Wed, Aug 12, 2020 at 3:10 AM Liz Dodd wrote: > On Tue, 11 Aug 2020 20:10:44 -0700 > Jim DeLaHunt wrote: > > > First of all, if you think that the vibe in the GnuCash community is > > "insulting, arrogant, unyielding"; if you think that the GnuCash > > developers are "being real jerks", then you haven't seen nearly > > enough of the Internet and of free software projects. The GnuCash > > community is a respectful vacation resort compared to some projects > > to which I contribute. The GnuCash developers are usually kind and > > helpful, and at the very worst, sometimes a touch impatient with > > requests they are unable to fulfill. The documentation is extensive > > and at least somewhat helpful. > > > > And I see that you put in a little separation between the computer > > programmers who developed GnuCash, and all those bad programmers, but > > when you unload on "the effective collection of them" you unload on > > all of them. > > Jim, and others, I do not approve of posts like doncram's which > preceded this. > As the Moderator I have intervened and will check future posts from > doncram. > > Kindly note that I do not tolerate coarse language or disparaging > others. > > Liz, Moderator Hat On. > ___ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. > - > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: [GNC] envelope method, equity sub-accounts, cash vs. hybrid vs. accrual accounting
Hey, a breakthrough maybe, as I just found an example "envelope budget" style report, in http://richwithnojob.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_4816-169x300.png , a May 2017 blog posting titled "How I’m reducing my budget by $1k this month." at WordPress blog-site "Rich With No Job". The blogger is explaining use of "GoodBudget" app on their iphone. I do like the "envelope budget" style report showing where they are, at mid-month, in their spending on numerous discretionary categories (including monthly budget of $500 for "Books/personal development", $60 for drinking out, $50 for drinking in, $60 for lunches out). It is visual and data-intensive, showing for each category its budget, its actuals so far, the budget slack remaining, and, interestingly, a tick mark showing how far along in spending they would be if spending evenly over the month. If their actuals bar runs past that, a little suggestion is made "You're behind by $21.02. Stop spending for two days?". Clearly some do enjoy the "envelope" concept, and there's no reason not to present a report this way. The sole user of the system apparently must enter each spending transaction they make and use pull-down to categorize it. "Turns out that manually entering this stuff makes you very conscious of what you are spending", they note. Their entry is exactly the same as, in the regular conceptual view, their entry of an expense transaction. This app is where they are doing their accounting. Actually, I would really like it, in a multi-person organization, if each authorized spender was promptly recording such entries, and if those could be swept back to a regular accounting system at least once a day. And I would like it if each of them could see the status report, right at the place and moment of almost making a new expenditure. If they go ahead and spend, and this is the transaction that brings the category over-budget, then I'd like for the app to make an unpleasant sound, or scold them, or give them an electric jolt! It really could be the trigger for sending out an email or other notice that brings scrutiny, or for requiring a review meeting. And in many settings, this would work fine even with once-a-day updating of their data. Another nice feature is a second report listing all the recent transactions in this category. That would really help put one spender I know on notice, with no excuses that they thought some refund transaction say, was going to go through or the like, freeing up slack, when the transaction log is showing it already did go through. Or helpfully letting them know some big, anticipated expense had already gone through, so the slack shown is really available. Or showing them that, rats, another spender just got in their expense first and now there is no slack. This app is providing all the info that is immediately relevant, which is still just a very small part of all accounting and budget info, without requiring the user to wade through big reports to try to look up these data and then do computations in their head. It is very simple, really nice, and is within the envelope budget conceptual world if they choose that configuration of reporting. Most of this sounds just like defining a nice app, which could be separate from GnuCash, only requiring access to the current GnuCash data once a day, say, perhaps not requiring any code change in GnuCash at all. But it should also be able to go in and change the GnuCash data itself, to add the new transactions entered by the users. I would hope that duplicate entries coming in this way vs. entries coming from banking, could be handled automatically. Programming-wise, would receiving new data actually require GnuCash to change, or could the app's system simply operate upon the organization's data files. I do think it would be really cool, if GnuCash could accommodate this. Am I correct that GnuCash development does not cover multiple-device systems, that the GnuCash system would not itself include the app. Anyhow, Christopher et al., now does this sound like what you want? Don On Wed, Aug 12, 2020 at 3:34 PM doncram wrote: > Thanks Christopher for pointing me to that discussion, which is roughly > about requesting an envelope method be implemented into GnuCash. > > I am just beginning to test the budget features within GnuCash. What i > see at first looks reasonable: when you begin to create a new budget it > provides a big spreadsheet view, with columns for months going forward, and > rows for each of your revenue and expense accounts, and you can start > editing in what your budget is for each expense for each month. This seems > normal and useful. The documentation (GnuCash Tutorial and Concept Guide's > chapter 14 on Budgets and its section on budget reports within chapter 10 > Reports) doesn't go very far yet. It doesn't give any example, and the > reports it mentions sound like they are only reports of budgeted numbers > put in, but those named re
Re: [GNC] help to set up equity sub-accounts opening balances [problem solved]
Friends: I first posted to this list back on August 4 and I thank you all for your help. I believe I have my solution; it is working and is just what I want. Warning: those of you who are real accountants will probably be appalled and the rest of you should probably not try this at home. Here is a summary: - I wanted to be able to set up what I call “Fund” accounts for designated purposes, which I had previously made Equity accounts [because in my old program I could enter an opening balance and deposit/withdraw funds directly to those accounts. Can’t do that in GnuCash, or regular accounting.] - There was some confusion about this, but in my system the “Funds” actually include all of my assets (less liabilities). No “envelopes” or anything like that. I post (actually transfer) budgeted amounts to my “Fund” accounts, and at the end of the month I post the balance of “net assets” to the Emergency/Savings fund, bringing the net assets to zero and closing the month (the old-fashioned way, I guess). - One suggestion (before we got off on envelopes and non-profit accounting) was that my “Funds” were not actually Equity accounts; they should be Liability accounts. That made some sense, so I set them up as liability accounts so they work pretty much like a credit card. You can write a check or make a credit card purchase and take the funds directly from the appropriate fund account. Different: to deposit (transfer, actually) funds into a fund account you need to use an expense account (“Accruals” in my case; I may not be using the term correctly). - At this point, your equity account shows a balance of zero, which is correct. But if you take the total of the Fund liability accounts, change the sign and add them to both sides of the accounting equation you can see that they are equal to your total equity. This is certainly not for everyone, but it works for me. (Hope it does not come back to bite me, but I have tested it out.) I am very pleased with GnuCash. Best regards,mgk ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: [GNC] Help with mult-currency multi-split import
You're relying too much on images to tell your story, made worse by the fact that the list server doesn't work with inline images. Have a look at your message in the archive: https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2020-August/092596.html What's more, you've blanked out most of the account names on the images, and the main comment on the register image seems incomplete. If for some reason you think that your account names reveal too much about your finances, replace them with fake names so that the viewer can track the account flow through the process. To the "why is this here" question on that image, the arrow is pointing to 1468.00. That's the amount of AUD in your imported transaction. The last image, annotated "It Works" has the AUD amount as 1678.08. ISTM that rather indicates that it doesn't work. ISTM the question should be "where does that 168.08 come from?" and I think it comes from using the wrong exchange rate between AUD and whatever the other currency is, resulting in 56286.05 being calculated as 1678.08 AUD. 168.08 = 1678.08 - 1468.00, the amount needed to balance the transaction. I think that the work around is to specify a price in multi-commodity imports, but I'm not as familiar with the csv importer as I should be so I can't say authoritatively that it will work. Regards, John Ralls > On Aug 13, 2020, at 4:16 AM, Gio Bacareza wrote: > > I maintain multi-currency accounts. I rely on monthly or quarterly > statements to enter the transactions into Gnucash. So I rely on the import > feature. > > Without a reliable import, a system will be too manual for me. So it is > vital that import works. > I know that multi-currency imports have been a known issue but I thought I > had found a solution through correctly doing a multi-split in this manner: > Date Description Accounts Debit Credit > mm/dd/ Some description Account Amount in currency 1 0 > Transfer Account 0 Amount in currency 02 > > I've tested this with dummy data as well as real information. So far it has > worked. > > Except my last import. The import was a real mess so I had a little > experiment. I set it up by taking samples from the actual data. > Scenario 1: 2 transactions. 1 has conversion. 1 no conversion. > > 1. Set up the import > > [image: image.png] > > 1. Match the accounts > > [image: image.png] > > > 1. In "Match Transactions" step, it was already exhibiting weird > behaviors. > > [image: image.png] > > > 1. Checking the registry, Gnucash added in an amount from the first > transaction and completely wrongly assigned transactions in the split. I > can't figure out why it does that. > > [image: image.png] > > Checking if it's an exchange rate issue, I find that it's not an exchange > rate issue. The precalculated conversion uses the same exchange rate as was > imported to gnucash. > Scenario 2: Import same 2 transactions above one at a time. > > So to test and try to understand what is happening, I took the same > transactions and, using the same structure, imported them one at a time. > [image: image.png] > [image: image.png] > > Am I missing anything? > > If I have to import these 1 by 1, I might as well just manually enter them > into the registry. This is a deal breaker. > > Any help is appreciated. Thanks. > > -- > cheers, > > Gio > ___ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. > - > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
[GNC] Inconsistency Between Balance of Stock Account and Display in Accounts
I am still running GC 2.6.19 under Ubuntu Studio 18.04, but plan to update to Ubuntu Studio 20.04 soon and will then get a newer version of GC. Meanwhile, I have a problem which I find very hard to understand: I purchased 600 shares of a stock last year and sold them again this year. When I open the ledger of the stock account, it displays the balance correctly as 0. However, in the Accounts list, the stock account still shows a balance of 0.982352 shares What could account for this discrepancy? How likely is it that a newer version of GC will correct this misrepresentation? Is there some way of troubleshooting it, or should I just hide the (now empty) account and forget about it? Thanks for any advice! ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
[GNC] Stock split assistant fail
Hi, On my Mac Using Version: 4.1 Build ID: 4.1+(2020-07-25) Finance::Quote: 1.47 When I enter the data for a stock split of a stock, the assistant does a no-op. No transaction is created (that I have found). Is this a known problem or is it just me? Keith ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: [GNC] envelope method, equity sub-accounts, cash vs. hybrid vs. accrual accounting
On 8/12/20 4:34 PM, doncram wrote: The documentation (GnuCash Tutorial and Concept Guide's chapter 14 on Budgets and its section on budget reports within chapter 10 Reports) doesn't go very far yet. This is certainly true, as can be found many times on this list, "Contributions welcome." It doesn't mention any report showing Budget vs. Actual amounts for a given period, but I assume something like that must exist. Did you run a report and investigate the options? Simply doing so would have saved you typing a paragraph. The Budget report has the Actual and Difference columns as an option. Percentages would be nice, but you'll have to export to a spreadsheet for now. About implementing some "envelope method" approach, I think that would be very radical, and that it would not be reasonable to devote programming effort to it before it was proven to be useful in real life. I haven't see it demonstrated in a spreadsheet-based example, even. Are there such? Don't be lazy. A simple web search will reveal plenty of example sheets you can download. There are also apps which follow this. (you already know of YNAB) I've played with MoneyWell (Mac only) and while I like how it works, I kept coming back to GnuCash. Since both can integrate through import-export, I may investigate using MoneyWell for day-to-day expenditures and budgeting, then exporting into GnuCash for my full accounting. That would solve my data-entry 'virtual account dance' that is required to use this method with GnuCash alone. but it sounds like it is meant as a thing for a firm which does not have double-entry bookkeeping. I don't see how the envelope method of budgeting is somehow not compatible with double-entry. One split will be the expenditure, the other will be the appropriate envelope. Filling the envelopes involves splits between cash-on-hand and the various envelopes. Double entry is certainly not difficult or incompatible with the method. If it is a thing, I suspect it is only a thing for entities like households that wouldn't be using GnuCash. Again, I don't see this limitation at all. Why wouldn't a household use GnuCash and want to use Envelope Budgeting? Indeed, I suspect anyone who wants to see it added to GnuCash is indeed doing personal accounting. With no use of credit/debit cards at all. The aforementioned MoneyWell was designed specifically for this use case. While it can be used for someone who deals in cash only, it really is designed for people who rarely use physical cash. (might be why I had a difficult time sticking with it) snip < This is, like, motivational, not practical; So, so, so many people following that advice a la Mr. Ramsey might respectfully disagree. This type of comment is getting into territory of discounting others and their use cases again, simply because they don't mimic your own. I guess it could work for, like, the classic example of a rich woman having a big allowance from her husband, where her spending is really discretionary, when the husband gets mad and limits her to only spending from an allowance for the month given in cash, with resolve that he won't give her more. That sentiment is not only short sighted of how others than yourself approach money and handle their finances, but also quite insulting. There are many families that operate with both spouses on-board with the envelope (and even cash-only) method. Any nonprofit or small business is not like that, cannot operate that way even as an exercise for any period of time, but cause it just can't stop spending in a category when spending has to be done. I could be mistaken, but I was taught managerial accounting/budgeting to aggregate expenses into broad categories for analysis. (the actual accounting is of course done with normal detailed accounts) That is essentially what the Envelope Method is for households. Rather than getting lost in the minutiae of each little account, it broadly groups categories of spending purposes for a broader and simpler overview where more impactful decisions can be made. Looking at dirty details are useful to find out why a particular category might be out of whack that you are either just finding out is a problem, or because you're having a hard time keeping it in check. (and may expose the need to adjust your habits/decisions or budget) But that is an investigatory tool, while a bigger picture overview is easier to make decisions on and operate on a day-to-day basis to stick to the budget rather than a re-active line-item approach after the money is already out of the door. And most certainly a small business can operate that way. (and non-profits) If the money isn't physically there and the business doesn't have access to debt, or chooses not to use it, then no matter how much spending 'has to be done' the manager/owner doesn't/can't do it. Yes, that might come with a negative impact in some form, but that
Re: [GNC] envelope method, equity sub-accounts, cash vs. hybrid vs. accrual accounting
"I don't see how the envelope method of budgeting is somehow not compatible with double-entry. One split will be the expenditure, the other will be the appropriate envelope. Filling the envelopes involves splits between cash-on-hand and the various envelopes. Double entry is certainly not difficult or incompatible with the method." When you "move money" to deposit into those envelopes, it will mess up the transaction list on the checking/savings account that will continue to "hold" those funds until you actually spend the money. So it breaks in that sense. On August 13, 2020 2:07:48 PM CDT, Adrien Monteleone wrote: >On 8/12/20 4:34 PM, doncram wrote: >> The documentation (GnuCash Tutorial and Concept Guide's >> chapter 14 on Budgets and its section on budget reports within >chapter 10 >> Reports) doesn't go very far yet. > >This is certainly true, as can be found many times on this list, >"Contributions welcome." > >> It doesn't mention any report showing >> Budget vs. Actual amounts for a given period, but I assume something >like >> that must exist. > >Did you run a report and investigate the options? Simply doing so would > >have saved you typing a paragraph. > >The Budget report has the Actual and Difference columns as an option. > >Percentages would be nice, but you'll have to export to a spreadsheet >for now. > > >> About implementing some "envelope method" approach, I think that >would be >> very radical, and that it would not be reasonable to devote >programming >> effort to it before it was proven to be useful in real life. I >haven't see >> it demonstrated in a spreadsheet-based example, even. Are there >such? > >Don't be lazy. A simple web search will reveal plenty of example sheets > >you can download. > >There are also apps which follow this. (you already know of YNAB) I've >played with MoneyWell (Mac only) and while I like how it works, I kept >coming back to GnuCash. Since both can integrate through import-export, > >I may investigate using MoneyWell for day-to-day expenditures and >budgeting, then exporting into GnuCash for my full accounting. That >would solve my data-entry 'virtual account dance' that is required to >use this method with GnuCash alone. > > >> but it sounds like it is meant as a thing for a firm which does not >have >> double-entry bookkeeping. > >I don't see how the envelope method of budgeting is somehow not >compatible with double-entry. One split will be the expenditure, the >other will be the appropriate envelope. Filling the envelopes involves >splits between cash-on-hand and the various envelopes. Double entry is >certainly not difficult or incompatible with the method. > > >If it is a thing, I suspect it is only a thing >> for entities like households that wouldn't be using GnuCash. > >Again, I don't see this limitation at all. Why wouldn't a household use > >GnuCash and want to use Envelope Budgeting? Indeed, I suspect anyone >who >wants to see it added to GnuCash is indeed doing personal accounting. > > >With no use of credit/debit cards at all. > >The aforementioned MoneyWell was designed specifically for this use >case. While it can be used for someone who deals in cash only, it >really >is designed for people who rarely use physical cash. (might be why I >had >a difficult time sticking with it) > > >> snip < This >> is, like, motivational, not practical; > >So, so, so many people following that advice a la Mr. Ramsey might >respectfully disagree. This type of comment is getting into territory >of >discounting others and their use cases again, simply because they don't > >mimic your own. > > >I guess it could work for, like, >> the classic example of a rich woman having a big allowance from her >> husband, where her spending is really discretionary, when the husband >gets >> mad and limits her to only spending from an allowance for the month >given >> in cash, with resolve that he won't give her more. > >That sentiment is not only short sighted of how others than yourself >approach money and handle their finances, but also quite insulting. >There are many families that operate with both spouses on-board with >the >envelope (and even cash-only) method. > > >Any nonprofit or small >> business is not like that, cannot operate that way even as an >exercise for >> any period of time, but cause it just can't stop spending in a >category >> when spending has to be done. > >I could be mistaken, but I was taught managerial accounting/budgeting >to >aggregate expenses into broad categories for analysis. (the actual >accounting is of course done with normal detailed accounts) That is >essentially what the Envelope Method is for households. Rather than >getting lost in the minutiae of each little account, it broadly groups >categories of spending purposes for a broader and simpler overview >where >more impactful decisions can be made. > >Looking at dirty details are useful to find out why a particular >category might be out of whac
Re: [GNC] Stock split assistant fail
> On Aug 13, 2020, at 10:55 AM, Keith Bellairs wrote: > > Hi, > On my Mac Using Version: 4.1 > Build ID: 4.1+(2020-07-25) > Finance::Quote: 1.47 > > When I enter the data for a stock split of a stock, the assistant does a > no-op. No transaction is created (that I have found). Is this a known > problem or is it just me? > I just booked (maybe a little ahead of time) the AAPL split and it worked fine. Must be you. ;-) What did you put in the Shares box? Regards, John Ralls ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
[GNC] Missing income line within Income Statement (Multicolumn)
Hi, I am using version 4.1 on a windows 10 machine and all looks good. I want to use the Income Statement (Multicolumn) report as I prefer it to the P&L. However one of my income accounts is showing a zero balance but when I access the hyper link for overall income the amount is showing... Does anyone have an understanding as to why this might be happening, as for me this report is perfect, but for this error. Overall the income line is understated, but not when I drill into it. Thanks -- Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: [GNC] Stock split assistant fail
I was doing the TSLA 5-1 split. I put 40 in Shares. Empty New Price (tried an amount too). Next out of Cash in lieu. Apply in Stock Split Finish. And nada. Cancel and Back buttons are active. Apply is grayed. Cancel cancels and Back goes back. Maybe it’s Elon Sent from my iPhone > On Aug 13, 2020, at 16:25, John Ralls wrote: > > > >> On Aug 13, 2020, at 10:55 AM, Keith Bellairs wrote: >> >> Hi, >> On my Mac Using Version: 4.1 >> Build ID: 4.1+(2020-07-25) >> Finance::Quote: 1.47 >> >> When I enter the data for a stock split of a stock, the assistant does a >> no-op. No transaction is created (that I have found). Is this a known >> problem or is it just me? >> > > I just booked (maybe a little ahead of time) the AAPL split and it worked > fine. Must be you. ;-) > > What did you put in the Shares box? > > Regards, > John Ralls > > ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: [GNC] envelope method, equity sub-accounts, cash vs. hybrid vs. accrual accounting
I use envelope budgeting, with one actual bank account, represented in Gnucash by multiple subaccounts. The account summary shows me the total amount in the actual account, which I can check against the balance of that account. I have scheduled transactions in Gc that deduct from my usual cash account (which is different again) into the subaccounts. At the bank, I have scheduled transfers that make those deductions from my cash account to my (single) budget account. When I know a bill is due, I schedule a payment at the bank from my single budget account, and likewise schedule a transaction in Gc. The difficulties come in “reconciling” the budget accounts with the bank budget account. My accounts are set up so that the parent budget account shows the total of the subaccounts, but does not show the transactions. I may be able to make it do this, at least while “reconciling,” but I haven’t looked into it that far. So I hav to work from multiple Gc accounts against the single bank statement, which is a pain. However, as these are regular payments, that’s not so bad. Incidentally, I use the scare quotes because I do not use Gc’s reconciliation mechanism. I started to look at it once, and it seemed incompatible with the way I was doing things. Now I reconcile manually against the statements by setting the cleared marker on the individual Gc transactions and then working out which ones I have forgotten to enter. I try to do entry regularly – ideally every evening – from the receipts I have collected during the day, including online receipts. Obviously, only budgeted payments come out of the budget account. If I have to raid the budget, I’m living beyond my means. Confer with Mr Micawber. The whole point about having such a budget is that you don’t raid it. If you do, you’re stuffed, financially speaking. With those caveats, envelope budgeting works for me. > On 14 Aug 2020, at 5:26 am, Don Ireland wrote: > > "I don't see how the envelope method of budgeting is somehow not compatible > with double-entry. One split will be the expenditure, the other will be the > appropriate envelope. Filling the envelopes involves splits between > cash-on-hand and the various envelopes. Double entry is certainly not > difficult or incompatible with the method." > > When you "move money" to deposit into those envelopes, it will mess up the > transaction list on the checking/savings account that will continue to "hold" > those funds until you actually spend the money. So it breaks in that sense. > > On August 13, 2020 2:07:48 PM CDT, Adrien Monteleone > wrote: >> On 8/12/20 4:34 PM, doncram wrote: >>> The documentation (GnuCash Tutorial and Concept Guide's >>> chapter 14 on Budgets and its section on budget reports within >> chapter 10 >>> Reports) doesn't go very far yet. >> >> This is certainly true, as can be found many times on this list, >> "Contributions welcome." >> >>> It doesn't mention any report showing >>> Budget vs. Actual amounts for a given period, but I assume something >> like >>> that must exist. >> >> Did you run a report and investigate the options? Simply doing so would >> >> have saved you typing a paragraph. >> >> The Budget report has the Actual and Difference columns as an option. >> >> Percentages would be nice, but you'll have to export to a spreadsheet >> for now. >> >> >>> About implementing some "envelope method" approach, I think that >> would be >>> very radical, and that it would not be reasonable to devote >> programming >>> effort to it before it was proven to be useful in real life. I >> haven't see >>> it demonstrated in a spreadsheet-based example, even. Are there >> such? >> >> Don't be lazy. A simple web search will reveal plenty of example sheets >> >> you can download. >> >> There are also apps which follow this. (you already know of YNAB) I've >> played with MoneyWell (Mac only) and while I like how it works, I kept >> coming back to GnuCash. Since both can integrate through import-export, >> >> I may investigate using MoneyWell for day-to-day expenditures and >> budgeting, then exporting into GnuCash for my full accounting. That >> would solve my data-entry 'virtual account dance' that is required to >> use this method with GnuCash alone. >> >> >>> but it sounds like it is meant as a thing for a firm which does not >> have >>> double-entry bookkeeping. >> >> I don't see how the envelope method of budgeting is somehow not >> compatible with double-entry. One split will be the expenditure, the >> other will be the appropriate envelope. Filling the envelopes involves >> splits between cash-on-hand and the various envelopes. Double entry is >> certainly not difficult or incompatible with the method. >> >> >> If it is a thing, I suspect it is only a thing >>> for entities like households that wouldn't be using GnuCash. >> >> Again, I don't see this limitation at all. Why wouldn't a household use >> >> GnuCash and wan
[GNC] Print to file Vs Make Pdf
TL:DR - Linux Version of GnuCash v3.4: "Print" and "Make PDF" now do the same thing on my new install. Do I need an extra plugin or something so that "Make PDF" saves directly to pdf without "printing" and generates a filename from the Invoice number and date? (like it used to for me ) Hi to all my "Gnu" friends, I recently needed to reinstall GnuCash on a fresh install of linux on my chromebook (I have been using GnuCash on my chromebook for about a year and a half) and I'm having some issues with the "Make PDF" feature. Previously if I clicked "Make Pdf" it would immediately open up a save to PDF dialog with the filename generated like this... Invoice-000125-07_13_2020.pdf ...and then I could append the file name like this... Invoice-000125-07_13_2020-Geoff-ZoomaxPart.pdf ...to make it more friendly. However on my new install, "Make Pdf" does the same thing as "Print", allowing me to print to file but with the default name of "output.pdf". I have tried to find a solution online and by tinkering for a few days now and I'm stuck. I thought maybe I was missing a dependency or something but I couldn't figure out what it might be. I knew that LibreOffice had a similar PDF export feature so I tried installing that. The "export as PDF" worked as expected but still not in GnuCash. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling GnuCash with LibreOffice installed but still no go. Has anyone experienced this issue and/or know what I need to do? Regards, Glen -- Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: [GNC] envelope method, equity sub-accounts, cash vs. hybrid vs. accrual accounting
Peter, There is a checkbox at the beginning of reconciliation to 'include sub-accounts'. That should make it easy. GnuCash reconciliation is not scary. You simply enter your statement date and ending balance, then check off each transaction as you match them up to your statement. When everything is checked off, the difference between actual ending and expected ending balance should be zero. If not, something needs investigation, or a balancing(correcting) transaction is in order. When you get to the window to check off transactions, anything already marked 'cleared' will be checked off for you, so the process will go rather quickly. Regards, Adrien On 8/13/20 7:09 PM, Peter West wrote: I use envelope budgeting, with one actual bank account, represented in Gnucash by multiple subaccounts. The account summary shows me the total amount in the actual account, which I can check against the balance of that account. I have scheduled transactions in Gc that deduct from my usual cash account (which is different again) into the subaccounts. At the bank, I have scheduled transfers that make those deductions from my cash account to my (single) budget account. When I know a bill is due, I schedule a payment at the bank from my single budget account, and likewise schedule a transaction in Gc. The difficulties come in “reconciling” the budget accounts with the bank budget account. My accounts are set up so that the parent budget account shows the total of the subaccounts, but does not show the transactions. I may be able to make it do this, at least while “reconciling,” but I haven’t looked into it that far. So I hav to work from multiple Gc accounts against the single bank statement, which is a pain. However, as these are regular payments, that’s not so bad. Incidentally, I use the scare quotes because I do not use Gc’s reconciliation mechanism. I started to look at it once, and it seemed incompatible with the way I was doing things. Now I reconcile manually against the statements by setting the cleared marker on the individual Gc transactions and then working out which ones I have forgotten to enter. I try to do entry regularly – ideally every evening – from the receipts I have collected during the day, including online receipts. Obviously, only budgeted payments come out of the budget account. If I have to raid the budget, I’m living beyond my means. Confer with Mr Micawber. The whole point about having such a budget is that you don’t raid it. If you do, you’re stuffed, financially speaking. With those caveats, envelope budgeting works for me. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: [GNC] envelope method, equity sub-accounts, cash vs. hybrid vs. accrual accounting
Double-entry means credits equal debits. That situation still holds here. It does introduce some 'noise' into the source register, but that doesn't 'break' double-entry. The easy fix for purposes of reconciliation is to simply mark those budgeting transactions cleared immediately. (since there is nothing to check them against anyway) They are of no concern when reconciling. If you 'move' the funds back to the source account when doing the expense transaction/liability payment (to reflect the real-world) then your source register will contain all transactions to match your statement. Else, you can 'include sub-accounts' when reconciling depending on how you set things up. (GnuCash forces double-entry. You can't break it. If you only enter one side of a transaction, the other is set to Orphan or Imbalance) Of course, if your dealing with physical cash, none of that is a concern. Regards, Adrien On 8/13/20 2:26 PM, Don Ireland wrote: "I don't see how the envelope method of budgeting is somehow not compatible with double-entry. One split will be the expenditure, the other will be the appropriate envelope. Filling the envelopes involves splits between cash-on-hand and the various envelopes. Double entry is certainly not difficult or incompatible with the method." When you "move money" to deposit into those envelopes, it will mess up the transaction list on the checking/savings account that will continue to "hold" those funds until you actually spend the money. So it breaks in that sense. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: [GNC] Help with mult-currency multi-split import
Hi John, Thanks for the feedback. Always learning. Let me answer. I did check whether this was a currency exchange rate issue. But I'm sure it's not because: (a) I imported daily prices to gnucash prior to export and I pre-converted the currencies using the same price. In this case, the AUD to PHP on 02/27/2020 is 33.54241157. That is the same price I use to pre-convert. So 1678.08*33.54241157 = 56286.85. So unless gnucash uses other means to calculate, it couldn't be an exchange rate issue. (b) Why is it then that when I import the same 2 transactions one at a time, the issue does not happen? (c) It could be purely coincidental but the amount in 1st transaction (AUD to AUD so no conversion) is AUD 1486.00 and that is precisely what gnucash. Thanks for feedback on images. I'm recreating the scenarios below for reference: Test 1: Import: Withdraw Deposit 02/21/2020,test first transaction,Account 1 in AUD,1486,0,, ,,Account 2 in AUD,0,1486,, 02/27/2020,test second transaction,Account 1 in AUD,0,1678.08,, ,,Account 3 in PHP,56286.85,0,,note- conversion price stored in gnucash is is 33.54241157. That is the same price I use to pre-convert. So 1678.08*33.54241157 = 56286.85 Result: 02/21/2020,test first transaction,Account 1 in AUD,1486,0 ,,Account 2 in AUD,0,1486 02/27/2020,test second transaction,Account 1 in AUD,0,1486 ,,Orphan,,192.08 ,,Account 3 in PHP,56286.85,0 ,,Trading:CURRENCY:PHP,1678.08, ,,Trading:CURRENCY:USD,,1678.08 Test2: 2 imports. 1 by 1 Result: Correct 02/21/2020,test first transaction,Account 1 in AUD,1486,0,, ,,Account 2 in AUD,0,1486,, 02/27/2020,test second transaction,Account 1 in AUD,0,1678.08,, ,,Account 3 in PHP,56286.85,0 On Fri, Aug 14, 2020 at 12:42 AM John Ralls wrote: > You're relying too much on images to tell your story, made worse by the > fact that the list server doesn't work with inline images. Have a look at > your message in the archive: > https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2020-August/092596.html > > What's more, you've blanked out most of the account names on the images, > and the main comment on the register image seems incomplete. If for some > reason you think that your account names reveal too much about your > finances, replace them with fake names so that the viewer can track the > account flow through the process. > > To the "why is this here" question on that image, the arrow is pointing to > 1468.00. That's the amount of AUD in your imported transaction. The last > image, annotated "It Works" has the AUD amount as 1678.08. ISTM that rather > indicates that it doesn't work. ISTM the question should be "where does > that 168.08 come from?" and I think it comes from using the wrong exchange > rate between AUD and whatever the other currency is, resulting in 56286.05 > being calculated as 1678.08 AUD. 168.08 = 1678.08 - 1468.00, the amount > needed to balance the transaction. > > I think that the work around is to specify a price in multi-commodity > imports, but I'm not as familiar with the csv importer as I should be so I > can't say authoritatively that it will work. > > Regards, > John Ralls > > > On Aug 13, 2020, at 4:16 AM, Gio Bacareza wrote: > > > > I maintain multi-currency accounts. I rely on monthly or quarterly > > statements to enter the transactions into Gnucash. So I rely on the > import > > feature. > > > > Without a reliable import, a system will be too manual for me. So it is > > vital that import works. > > I know that multi-currency imports have been a known issue but I thought > I > > had found a solution through correctly doing a multi-split in this > manner: > > Date Description Accounts Debit Credit > > mm/dd/ Some description Account Amount in currency 1 0 > > Transfer Account 0 Amount in currency 02 > > > > I've tested this with dummy data as well as real information. So far it > has > > worked. > > > > Except my last import. The import was a real mess so I had a little > > experiment. I set it up by taking samples from the actual data. > > Scenario 1: 2 transactions. 1 has conversion. 1 no conversion. > > > > 1. Set up the import > > > > [image: image.png] > > > > 1. Match the accounts > > > > [image: image.png] > > > > > > 1. In "Match Transactions" step, it was already exhibiting weird > > behaviors. > > > > [image: image.png] > > > > > > 1. Checking the registry, Gnucash added in an amount from the first > > transaction and completely wrongly assigned transactions in the split. > I > > can't figure out why it does that. > > > > [image: image.png] > > > > Checking if it's an exchange rate issue, I find that it's not an exchange > > rate issue. The precalculated conversion uses the same exchange rate as > was > > imported to gnucash. > > Scenario 2: Import same 2 transactions above one at a time. > > > > So to test and try to understand what is happening, I took the same > > transactions and, using the same structure, imported them one at a time. > > [image: image.png] > > [
