[GNC] How to handle multiple Schedule Cs and Es in TXF export?
Apparently the default TXF export in GNC can only generate a single Schedule C and/or Schedule E doc. Is there anyway to do multiple Sch C and E in TXF export? One option to circumvent this would be to select export accounts and create multiple TXF files corresponding to different schedules. But not sure how the tax software (e.g. TurboTax) would be able to import them correctly. Has anyone done this before? Thanks! -- ND ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] How to post "In Kind" donations
On 1/18/2025 5:33 PM, Ross Laver wrote: I am the treasurer of a fraternal organization. I want to track "In Kind" donations for budgeting purposes. EXAMPLE: someone purchases postage and does not want to be reimbursed. Postage is a legitimate expense. Please help! Ross a) donor pays an expense of the organization and declines reimbursement (ex: the pay the postage for a mailing) Debit expense (postage) and credit donations (for that amount). IF you want, could have a child t account under donations to track these are different from ordinary unrestricted donations in money. b) donor buys something for organization (ex stamps) and declines reimbursement. If the something would be immediately expensed (you don't have a inventory/asset for office supplies) then like above. But suppose the something would be a fixed asset (based on amount; the rule set by the organization*). Then debit an account or that asset (and expense as depreciated*. Michael D Novack * In the US, the IRS allows not for profit orgs (**) great freedom in these choices. Unlike a for profit business which the IRS would tell what has to be treated as a fixed asset and how fast can be depreciated (expensed) ** Whether or not a "tax deductible". The key point is that the organization pays no taxes and so makes no difference what rules the organization chooses. Could even expense big ticket long lasting things immediately. But this would be unwise as would distort the operations budget. Wild fluctuations in expenses need annotations. Much better to flatten that with reasonable fixed asset and depreciation rules. Especially important if you might be applying for grants and/or soliciting big donors. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] what is best procedure to 'split off' to a new set of books?
You also own the business. I would set up an account in Equity in your personal accounts "Contributions to xyz business" and a similar Equity account in the business books "Owners contributions". More generally, you own part of this business. Why under Equity? Why different from any other investment. I'd expect to be putting my ownership share of this business under Assets. Otherwise the same. If you use personal funds or credit on behalf of the business, the that represents a change in your investment. But yes, in the business's books, ownership shares under equity. Michael D Novack ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] Accoount Type Cash
On 1/19/2025 9:14 AM, Fred Tydeman wrote: I am running GnuCash 5.10 on Fedora Linux 41 My Default Currency is USD I imported from a QIF file some stock transactions. I sold some Canada stock from my US brokerage account. The money went into a CAD cash account in the brokerage. The "dollar" amount in that CAD cash account is wrong. If I change the CAD account type from cash to asset, then the "dollar" amount is correct. Just a FYI on help I give. Double entry has three FUNDAMENTAL account types (Asset, Liability, Equity) plus two "temporary" account types (Income, Expense -- they are of fundamental type Equity) and if accrual basis AR and AP (fundamental types Asset and Liability) Gnucash also makes a number a number of "user friendly" types like cash, bank account, credit card, etc. available. They may or may not be useful to you. Or you could just use appropriate account names in your CoA with the type being more fundamental. The point I am making as you are unlikely to reference to these in accounting books as non-standard. I will leave it to others on this list who do use them to answer questions about their (mis)behavior. Michael D Novack ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] what is best reconcile/update procedure?
Ah, Liz, your answer was the best for me. You see, technically, you could flip the script on my argument and say - explain to me your daily obsession of looking at your balances every day! As I said at the end of the rant - my 1 minute a day probably equates to your 30 minutes at the end of the month. But my only other argument would be that by doing it much more often - I only have to track 0, 1, or a couple of transaction - whereas someone at the end of the month may have up to 100 transactions to account for. I am a simple person — so keeping track of a few transactions is a lot easier that a month's full! Again — just my preference. Thanks for the reply — it made me smile! Ken From: gnucash-user on behalf of Liz Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2025 2:39 AM To: gnucash-user@gnucash.org Subject: Re: [GNC] what is best reconcile/update procedure? On Sun, 19 Jan 2025 01:53:54 + Ken Pyzik wrote: > So, with all that being said, can someone please explain to me why > people are wasting their time doing manual C/N reconciliations on a > bunch of transactions on their computer? I would think they could > use their time much more effectively doing something else. You see, > the reason for reconciliations in the past were that you did not have > the access, as you do today, to go and see exactly what the balance > is or what transactions have cleared in your account, anytime, > anywhere, 24-hours a day! Simple, I have multiple bank accounts, and don't look at everything every day, because "I have other things to do". :D Liz ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] what is best reconcile/update procedure?
I do an honest-to-god reconciliation to a statement every month for many of our accounts. The main reason I do this is it gives me a recent touch point where I can prove that the bank and I really did agree. While I also look at our most active accounts almost daily, those looks are useless in the case of a discrepancy. If I have to call the bank about an error, the representative on the other end of that call will put little credence in "It looked fine yesterday." I agree that a bank error is rare, but they are not unheard of. I do have to admit that my situation is somewhat more complex than the one Ken describes. My GnuCash books are home to several hundred different asset and liability accounts grouped into five different "business" areas to track our personal, extended family, and self-employed finances. A typical month sees two or three hundred transactions added to the general ledger. Also, while I went paperless decades ago, the world around me stubbornly refuses to join me. About 10% of those new transactions represent paper checks, most ordered through my bank. Some of those paper checks went uncashed for as much as six months in the last year. So, while a daily look at the really active accounts keeps me abreast of our financial situation, the monthly reconciliation is another important part of my routine. Best, John On 2025-01-19 12:51 AM, R Losey wrote: It is the habit in our household to put all paper receipts in a drawer, and I have a set time (each week) to enter those transactions (because so much is done online, I also go through email looking for electronic receipts). Please note that this is not a hard-and-fast rule; sometimes, I enter transactions shortly after they occur, if I happen to feel like it. But I still reconcile with the bank balance (not statement) each month; yes, I could do it weekly, but monthly is working for me. However, this helps me to ensure that no one in the household forgot to put a receipt in the drawer; various ones of us have forgotten (receipts found to have been languishing in a wallet or purse -- or worse, someone lost a receipt). Moreover, there are some charges that occur for which I get no notification -- for example, the Amazon Prime membership, or Amazon's "Subscribe & Save" items -- those just occur with no notification. A regular reconciliation helps me to find these things. Maybe this is not considered an "old-fashioned monthly bank reconciliation", since I am reconciling to current balance, not to some statement. On Sat, Jan 18, 2025 at 7:54 PM Ken Pyzik wrote: All — First, I want to apologize for the length of this rant. We will always agree to disagree on this subject. Please understand, I am a retired 30 year bank auditor. I know the purpose of what a reconciliation is. But what I don't understand is this obsession with doing monthly reconciliations for personal accounts on your computer. First, I have not received a "paper" statement from my bank in over 20 years. My statements are all online. Second, I sign-in to my (checking and credit card) accounts almost daily. So I know exactly when every deposit or charge hits my accounts. Third, in this day and age, I write, maybe, one check a month, to my landscaper who does not have direct deport. Other than that, my 20-30 transactions per month are all electronic. Also, I charge almost everything on my charge card. So any money I spend is on my charge card statement. Fourth, I enter transactions in GnuCash whenever I feel I have a few spare moments and my GnuCash balances nearly always match my online account balances except for when my landscaper takes too long to cash his check, or an electronic transaction takes more than a day or two to clear. Fifth, the whole purpose of the reconciliation process is to identify transactions that you either know to be coming or that you think will be coming that have not been reflected on your current bank balance so you don't overdraw your account or so that an unauthorized charge does not slip by. With that backdrop — as you can probably tell, I have not done an old-fashioned monthly bank reconciliation in eons. Technically, since I sign-in almost every day, I guess you can say I do a mini-reconciliation of my accounts daily (or almost daily!) and because of that, I know exactly what my balance is almost all the time. Additionally, if I see any unknown transaction online (which is like never!), I can call my bank almost anytime and discuss with them what the transaction is and usually get it rectified rather quickly. And the benefits of looking at my account everyday is that I can see it hit that day! So, with all that being said, can someone please explain to me why people are wasting their time doing manual C/N reconciliations on a bunch of transactions on their computer? I would think they could use their time much more effectively doing something else. You see, the reason for reconciliations in the past
[GNC] Accoount Type Cash
I am running GnuCash 5.10 on Fedora Linux 41 My Default Currency is USD I imported from a QIF file some stock transactions. I sold some Canada stock from my US brokerage account. The money went into a CAD cash account in the brokerage. The "dollar" amount in that CAD cash account is wrong. If I change the CAD account type from cash to asset, then the "dollar" amount is correct. So, are Cash account types limited to the default currency? ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] reconciliation start date?
Thanks, John. For the benefit of me and everyone else, let me make sure I get this correct as a procedure to follow. See questions below. > On Jan 18, 2025, at 21:20, John Ralls wrote: > > There is no reconcile start date. There’s a statement date and that sets the > *default* ending balance for the reconcile and gets saved as the “reconcile > date” on each reconciled split. There’s also a starting balance that is the > balance of all of the reconciled splits in the account. The starting balance is dynamically calculated as the sum of all reconciled splits in the account up until the “reconcile date”? Is that all correct? > The reconcile window won’t let you complete a reconcile if the modified > reconciled balance in the reconcile window doesn’t match the number you’ > entered in the reconcile information dialog. > > You can unreconcile splits by clicking the r in the column between account > and debit (or amount if it’s a non-currency commodity register). If you > haven’t quite gotten your head around debit and credit, the debit column is > the left of the two value columns. If I “unreconcile” a split, then the starting balance for reconciliation would necessarily change (decrease) right? > So if you have a few splits from a past reconciliation whose errors net out, > you can note the reconciled balance, unreconcile the erroneous splits, tell > the reconcile info that the ending balance is the one that you noted before > changing the splits, then edit and re-reconcile the splits with the correct > values. > > But if the errors don’t net out and the balance you reconciled to the first > time is wrong you need to unreconcile every split back to that statement and > re-reconcile all of the statements in order. To be clear: (i) unreconcile back until just after the last transaction that was correctly reconciled. If what I suggested above is correct, this alone will reset the reconciliation status back to the last correct reconciliation. (ii) Start reconciling from statements after the last correctly reconciled one; this can be done in the normal way as it was the first time through (but getting it right :). Is that all correct? Thanks for clarifying. Cheers, Brook ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] Stock merger
Hi Fred/GNUCash users, While I do not know how to a stock merger in GNUCash, it looks like there are some links to the relevant help sections in several different places online: https://code.gnucash.org/docs/C/gnucash-manual/stock-assistant.html https://lists.gnucash.org/docs/C/gnucash-guide/invest-splitsnmergers1.html https://code.gnucash.org/website/docs/v2.4/C/gnucash-guide/invest-splitsnmergers1.html These guides may not have been updated in a while though, especially as one seems to reference version 2.4...? --- Thanks, Brad - https://www.facebook.com/brad.morrison.12327/ & https://norcal.social/@BradMorrison On 2025-01-18 11:45, Fred Tydeman wrote: > In looking at the Gnucash Help file, in the Moderately Complex stock Merger > section, > I see that the number of AT&T shares decreased, but I do not see anything > about > the SBC shares. The example seems incomplete. > > Because of that, I am not able to follow how to do a stock merger. > > This is for GnuCash 5.10 on Fedora Linux 41. > ___ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@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. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
[GNC] Stock Assistant: Cash acnt
In using the Stock Assistant to sell some stock, when I get to the screen about Cash, for the field labeled "Cash Account", it appears that one can only select an Asset type account, in particular, one can NOT pick a Cash type account. Is this working as designed? A bug? ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] How to handle multiple Schedule Cs and Es in TXF export?
1) GnuCash is intended for small businesses and individuals. A single entity needs only one Schedule C. 2) The TXF functionality has been supplied by one contributor to meet basic reporting needs. #1 suggests one Schedule C per file would be provided in GnuCash. #2 suggests that the need for multiple Schedule Cs would be beyond the scope of that contributor. I suggest that you would be better served by setting up separate GnuCash files for each entity requiring its own Schedule C. David T. On Jan 19, 2025, 7:52 PM, at 7:52 PM, Jediator wrote: >Apparently the default TXF export in GNC can only generate a single >Schedule C and/or Schedule E doc. Is there anyway to do multiple Sch C > >and E in TXF export? One option to circumvent this would be to select >export accounts and create multiple TXF files corresponding to >different >schedules. But not sure how the tax software (e.g. TurboTax) would be >able to import them correctly. Has anyone done this before? Thanks! > >-- ND >___ >gnucash-user mailing list >gnucash-user@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. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] what is best reconcile/update procedure?
RECONCILE means check one against another (and resolve any differences) If you are ENTERING transactions into your books by migrating in a bank statement or credit card statement you are not reconciling. I guarantee will always match. What you SHOULD be looking for are transactions the bank has (but you did not enter), same for credit card. WHY am I getting charged $5.99/mo by XYZ?> Michael D Novack ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] How to handle multiple Schedule Cs and Es in TXF export?
> > > From: Jediator > To: "gnucash-user@gnucash.org" > Cc: > Bcc: > Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2025 11:49:54 -0500 > Subject: [GNC] How to handle multiple Schedule Cs and Es in TXF export? > Apparently the default TXF export in GNC can only generate a single > Schedule C and/or Schedule E doc. Is there anyway to do multiple Sch C > and E in TXF export? One option to circumvent this would be to select > export accounts and create multiple TXF files corresponding to different > schedules. But not sure how the tax software (e.g. TurboTax) would be > able to import them correctly. Has anyone done this before? Thanks! > > -- ND > Under 'Edit->Tax Options Report', you can specify multiple copies of certain forms/schedules. For example, for a married couple who file a joint return and require two Schedule C's (one for his business and a separate one for her business), you can specify copy one for accounts related to her business and copy 2 for accounts related to his, for the same Schedule C related TXF codes. The US Income Tax Report will provide subtotals for each separately. The TXF output will also have a different copy number for each. This applies to several Forms/Schedules (Form 8606 and Schedule E, for example). I don't have a clue how your tax software will handle this output once you have input it. I would appreciate feedback from you once you have tried it. Regards, Alex ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] what is best reconcile/update procedure?
On 19 January 2025 at 1:53, Ken Pyzik said: > All — First, I want to apologize for the length of this rant. We will > always agree to disagree on this subject. Please understand, I am a > retired 30 year bank auditor. I know the purpose of what a reconciliation > is. But what I don't understand is this obsession with doing monthly > reconciliations for personal accounts on your computer. > > First, I have not received a "paper" statement from my bank in over 20 > years. Other people, however (me, for example), may well be receiving them and may reasonably wish to reconcile their view of the relevant account with the institution's. Speaking purely for myself, I have more than once found an error on the part of my bank. I hope this will enable you to "understand" my "obsession". ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] what is best reconcile/update procedure?
On Sun, 19 Jan 2025 01:53:54 + Ken Pyzik wrote: > So, with all that being said, can someone please explain to me why > people are wasting their time doing manual C/N reconciliations on a > bunch of transactions on their computer? I would think they could > use their time much more effectively doing something else. You see, > the reason for reconciliations in the past were that you did not have > the access, as you do today, to go and see exactly what the balance > is or what transactions have cleared in your account, anytime, > anywhere, 24-hours a day! Simple, I have multiple bank accounts, and don't look at everything every day, because "I have other things to do". :D Liz ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] reconciliation start date?
> On Jan 19, 2025, at 10:57, Brook Milligan wrote: > > Thanks, John. For the benefit of me and everyone else, let me make sure I > get this correct as a procedure to follow. See questions below. > >> On Jan 18, 2025, at 21:20, John Ralls wrote: >> >> There is no reconcile start date. There’s a statement date and that sets the >> *default* ending balance for the reconcile and gets saved as the “reconcile >> date” on each reconciled split. There’s also a starting balance that is the >> balance of all of the reconciled splits in the account. > > The starting balance is dynamically calculated as the sum of all reconciled > splits in the account up until the “reconcile date”? Is that all correct? > >> The reconcile window won’t let you complete a reconcile if the modified >> reconciled balance in the reconcile window doesn’t match the number you’ >> entered in the reconcile information dialog. >> >> You can unreconcile splits by clicking the r in the column between account >> and debit (or amount if it’s a non-currency commodity register). If you >> haven’t quite gotten your head around debit and credit, the debit column is >> the left of the two value columns. > > If I “unreconcile” a split, then the starting balance for reconciliation > would necessarily change (decrease) right? > >> So if you have a few splits from a past reconciliation whose errors net out, >> you can note the reconciled balance, unreconcile the erroneous splits, tell >> the reconcile info that the ending balance is the one that you noted before >> changing the splits, then edit and re-reconcile the splits with the correct >> values. >> >> But if the errors don’t net out and the balance you reconciled to the first >> time is wrong you need to unreconcile every split back to that statement and >> re-reconcile all of the statements in order. > > To be clear: (i) unreconcile back until just after the last transaction that > was correctly reconciled. If what I suggested above is correct, this alone > will reset the reconciliation status back to the last correct reconciliation. > (ii) Start reconciling from statements after the last correctly reconciled > one; this can be done in the normal way as it was the first time through (but > getting it right :). > > Is that all correct? Almost. The starting balance is the net of all reconciled splits in the account regardless of date. That’s why you have to unreconcile everything back to the last untainted transaction. You have the procedure correct. 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 - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: [GNC] reconciliation start date?
On the first clarification, the answer is no. The starting balance is calculated from ALL/ALL reconciled entries in the account-- past, present, and future. David T. On Jan 19, 2025, 9:59 PM, at 9:59 PM, Brook Milligan via gnucash-user wrote: >Thanks, John. For the benefit of me and everyone else, let me make >sure I get this correct as a procedure to follow. See questions below. > >> On Jan 18, 2025, at 21:20, John Ralls wrote: >> >> There is no reconcile start date. There’s a statement date and that >sets the *default* ending balance for the reconcile and gets saved as >the “reconcile date” on each reconciled split. There’s also a starting >balance that is the balance of all of the reconciled splits in the >account. > >The starting balance is dynamically calculated as the sum of all >reconciled splits in the account up until the “reconcile date”? Is >that all correct? > >> The reconcile window won’t let you complete a reconcile if the >modified reconciled balance in the reconcile window doesn’t match the >number you’ entered in the reconcile information dialog. >> >> You can unreconcile splits by clicking the r in the column between >account and debit (or amount if it’s a non-currency commodity >register). If you haven’t quite gotten your head around debit and >credit, the debit column is the left of the two value columns. > >If I “unreconcile” a split, then the starting balance for >reconciliation would necessarily change (decrease) right? > >> So if you have a few splits from a past reconciliation whose errors >net out, you can note the reconciled balance, unreconcile the erroneous >splits, tell the reconcile info that the ending balance is the one that >you noted before changing the splits, then edit and re-reconcile the >splits with the correct values. >> >> But if the errors don’t net out and the balance you reconciled to the >first time is wrong you need to unreconcile every split back to that >statement and re-reconcile all of the statements in order. > >To be clear: (i) unreconcile back until just after the last transaction >that was correctly reconciled. If what I suggested above is correct, >this alone will reset the reconciliation status back to the last >correct reconciliation. (ii) Start reconciling from statements after >the last correctly reconciled one; this can be done in the normal way >as it was the first time through (but getting it right :). > >Is that all correct? > >Thanks for clarifying. > >Cheers, >Brook > >___ >gnucash-user mailing list >gnucash-user@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. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] reconciliation start date?
Got it. Thanks for the specifics. Cheers, Brook > On Jan 19, 2025, at 12:46, John Ralls wrote: > >> On Jan 19, 2025, at 10:57, Brook Milligan wrote: >> >> Thanks, John. For the benefit of me and everyone else, let me make sure I >> get this correct as a procedure to follow. See questions below. >> >>> On Jan 18, 2025, at 21:20, John Ralls wrote: >>> >>> There is no reconcile start date. There’s a statement date and that sets >>> the *default* ending balance for the reconcile and gets saved as the >>> “reconcile date” on each reconciled split. There’s also a starting balance >>> that is the balance of all of the reconciled splits in the account. >> >> The starting balance is dynamically calculated as the sum of all reconciled >> splits in the account up until the “reconcile date”? Is that all correct? >> >>> The reconcile window won’t let you complete a reconcile if the modified >>> reconciled balance in the reconcile window doesn’t match the number you’ >>> entered in the reconcile information dialog. >>> >>> You can unreconcile splits by clicking the r in the column between account >>> and debit (or amount if it’s a non-currency commodity register). If you >>> haven’t quite gotten your head around debit and credit, the debit column is >>> the left of the two value columns. >> >> If I “unreconcile” a split, then the starting balance for reconciliation >> would necessarily change (decrease) right? >> >>> So if you have a few splits from a past reconciliation whose errors net >>> out, you can note the reconciled balance, unreconcile the erroneous splits, >>> tell the reconcile info that the ending balance is the one that you noted >>> before changing the splits, then edit and re-reconcile the splits with the >>> correct values. >>> >>> But if the errors don’t net out and the balance you reconciled to the first >>> time is wrong you need to unreconcile every split back to that statement >>> and re-reconcile all of the statements in order. >> >> To be clear: (i) unreconcile back until just after the last transaction that >> was correctly reconciled. If what I suggested above is correct, this alone >> will reset the reconciliation status back to the last correct >> reconciliation. (ii) Start reconciling from statements after the last >> correctly reconciled one; this can be done in the normal way as it was the >> first time through (but getting it right :). >> >> Is that all correct? > > Almost. The starting balance is the net of all reconciled splits in the > account regardless of date. That’s why you have to unreconcile everything > back to the last untainted transaction. You have the procedure correct. > > 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 - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: [GNC] what is best reconcile/update procedure?
There is no best reconciliation strategy. An appropriate strategy depends on exactly what you are using GnuCash for. A business with a high number of transactions will have a need for relatively frequent reconciliation to detect errors, uncashed checks, etc. and to satisfy any internal and external reportingand audit requirements. In the case of personal finances, the frequency of reconciliation required likely depends on the complexity of your personal finances. Like Ken most of my transactions are cashless these days, and being retired a lot fewer than they were when I was working and running a business. Then monthly reconciliations proved to be both necessary and useful. Now I reconcile usually quarterly or even semi-annually. Like Ken I check my accounts usually on a daily basis for major discrepancies in the balances and for the automatically direct debited transactions that some websites sign you up for on the pretence of paying for a one-off (I do try to avoid them) and obvious bank errors, but my bank has a pretty good error rate (haven't found one in the past 5 years). One factor that may influence timing would be a bank's policies with regard to how long you may have to dispute errors and relevant regulatory legislation that constrains application of such policies so it is worth checking up on what those policies may be. On updating I prefer to stay up to date with the latest version of GnuCash. Most Linux distributions are often well behind the most recent version. If you lag behind, particularly across the major version boundaries updating can become a little bit more complex. There are very rarely any major problems with the core functionality of Gnucash in updates. The developers have done a very good job of making updates as painless as possible with procedures to update data files built into the update where necessary changes are made to the data file structure. I build GnuCash from the stable source tarballs on release. I did a little bit of minor work on some code areas in the past so building from scratch does not faze me but some users may find it more daunting, mainly in having all the necessary dependency versions and development headers available. David Cousens On Sat, 2025-01-18 at 21:06 +, arthur brogard via gnucash-user wrote: > i just keep personal books for the family. > my update and reconcile procedure works but is a bit tedious. I > can't think of any better way and I doubt there is one but i thought > it might be good to ask. > At sort of almost random times I decide to update the books. So I > download from CBA transactions from the bank accounts. > then I put them in a spreadsheet. in date order. > then I inspect and compare with a transaction report from gnu cash - > one for each account - and identify transactions not yet in gnu cash. > delete all but those from the spreadsheet. > sort on description. > attach a fourth column for target account. > import to gnu cash. > that's the update > balances should agree. that's the reconcile. > all that downloading, spreadsheeting, sorting blah, blah. any > better way or that's just it? > > ___ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@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. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] what is best reconcile/update procedure?
Arthur, If your bank has OFX/QFX export of the transactions this is usually the most reliable way of importing bank records into GnuCash as it is a fairly well defined standard protocol. CSV often takes a bit of work to do it relaibly as the protocol is less strictly defined. I used to diligently enter transactions from receipts while I was running a business but now that I am retired and I no longer have a check book and I get most receipts from most stores by email or sms in any case and most EFTPOSand credit card transactions appear in my account almost immediately, there was little advantage for me in doing this, so I just import the Bank records periodically and like Ken keep a close eye out for any unexpected changes in the account balances at the bank You may want to do reconciliations more frequently while getting up to speed on using Gnucash. Most banks issue statements monthly so there is little point in doing them more frequently than that. My bank has a facility to provide me with a statement at a specific date (for which they charge me extra) beyond the monthly cycle, but I would only use that where I have detected a discrepancy and i haven't had one for more than 5 years now. Whether you can use the aqbanking DirectConnectOFX interface will depend upon on whether your bank makes that interface available. Most banks in Australia don't for example ( they place stricter security requirements for software to have direct connections which open source software generally cannot meet) but I gather many US and European banks do. GnuCash has a lot of features to help improve the import of data mainly in matching imported transactions to existing transactions and automatically assigning the correct transfer account to the second entry of imported transactions. This is a statistical Bayesian matching and is "trained" by the account assignments you make in the import matching window of the import process. The training only occurs if you assign the accounts in this process and then complete the import and does not reflect any changes to the account assignments made after completion of the import process. Once this is trained and working well, the import process is generally a lot quicker. I might have to manually assign 6-8 transactions a month on import (usually out of ~100 transactions imported) although it does pay to check that the import matcher has assigned the correct account to each transactions Allowing it to import to an incorrect account trains it to do the wrong thing. You currently are replying only to my direct email and not to the mailing list "gnucash-user@gnucash.org". If there is no "reply all,"or "reply to list" in the yahoo mail client ( it may be there but hidden), just add that email address to the "To" line in your reply. I have forwarded your email which came directly to me to the list. David Cousens On Sun, 2025-01-19 at 22:32 +, arthur brogard wrote: > Thank you for that. > > Very pertinent and important observations you make. > > At this early stage of my involvement with gnu cash I'm still unsure > if my usage of it is optimal: am I doing things the easiest/best way? > > The 'mechanics' of it, you might say. > > Seems to me I do a lot of work just to get my transactions out of the > bank and into gnu cash and reconcile. > > Seems to me I've heard of direct bank to gnu cash connection perhaps? > > Or even without that it could well be that I'm doing things a wrong > way round and I'd love to know if so. > > :) > > ab > > p.s. am I doing this right? I'm just using 'reply' on my Yahoo mail > client. I don't see where I can do the suggested 'reply list' or > 'reply all' > > > > > > > On Monday 20 January 2025 at 08:33:43 am ACDT, David Cousens > wrote: > > > > > > > There is no best reconciliation strategy. An appropriate strategy > depends on exactly what you are using GnuCash for. > > A business with a high number of transactions will have a need for > relatively frequent reconciliation to detect errors, uncashed checks, > etc. and to satisfy any internal and external reportingand audit > requirements. In the case of personal finances, the frequency of > reconciliation required likely depends on the complexity of your > personal finances. > > Like Ken most of my transactions are cashless these days, and being > retired a lot fewer than they were when I was working and running a > business. Then monthly reconciliations proved to be both necessary > and > useful. Now I reconcile usually quarterly or even semi-annually. Like > Ken I check my accounts usually on a daily basis for major > discrepancies in the balances and for the automatically direct > debited > transactions that some websites sign you up for on the pretence of > paying for a one-off (I do try to avoid them) and obvious bank > errors, > but my bank has a pretty good error rate (haven't found one in the > past > 5 years). One factor that may influence timing wo
Re: [GNC] what is best reconcile/update procedure?
Monthly reconciliation isn't the only way. I found it more less time-consuming to do quarterly or semi-annually reconciliation instead of monthly, if most of your account transactions are in-sync with the banks' (and you don't have any monthly audit requirement). In the recon window, just enter the date of your latest bank statement, enter the ending balance amount, and go through the rest of the recon steps. In most cases, the transactions should be reconciled without problems. In case of any discrepancies and you couldn't find the missing transactions, you can go back to a statement with shorter timeline and go through the recon process... I've been dreaming of an AI-enabled GnuCash that imports OFX files monthly from your bank, maps accounts using machine learning, and generates reconciliation report without a single human touch, if I could only get less sleep and find that $1M funding... -- ND On 1/19/25 10:55 AM, John Morris wrote: I do an honest-to-god reconciliation to a statement every month for many of our accounts. The main reason I do this is it gives me a recent touch point where I can prove that the bank and I really did agree. While I also look at our most active accounts almost daily, those looks are useless in the case of a discrepancy. If I have to call the bank about an error, the representative on the other end of that call will put little credence in "It looked fine yesterday." I agree that a bank error is rare, but they are not unheard of. I do have to admit that my situation is somewhat more complex than the one Ken describes. My GnuCash books are home to several hundred different asset and liability accounts grouped into five different "business" areas to track our personal, extended family, and self-employed finances. A typical month sees two or three hundred transactions added to the general ledger. Also, while I went paperless decades ago, the world around me stubbornly refuses to join me. About 10% of those new transactions represent paper checks, most ordered through my bank. Some of those paper checks went uncashed for as much as six months in the last year. So, while a daily look at the really active accounts keeps me abreast of our financial situation, the monthly reconciliation is another important part of my routine. Best, John On 2025-01-19 12:51 AM, R Losey wrote: It is the habit in our household to put all paper receipts in a drawer, and I have a set time (each week) to enter those transactions (because so much is done online, I also go through email looking for electronic receipts). Please note that this is not a hard-and-fast rule; sometimes, I enter transactions shortly after they occur, if I happen to feel like it. But I still reconcile with the bank balance (not statement) each month; yes, I could do it weekly, but monthly is working for me. However, this helps me to ensure that no one in the household forgot to put a receipt in the drawer; various ones of us have forgotten (receipts found to have been languishing in a wallet or purse -- or worse, someone lost a receipt). Moreover, there are some charges that occur for which I get no notification -- for example, the Amazon Prime membership, or Amazon's "Subscribe & Save" items -- those just occur with no notification. A regular reconciliation helps me to find these things. Maybe this is not considered an "old-fashioned monthly bank reconciliation", since I am reconciling to current balance, not to some statement. On Sat, Jan 18, 2025 at 7:54 PM Ken Pyzik wrote: All — First, I want to apologize for the length of this rant. We will always agree to disagree on this subject. Please understand, I am a retired 30 year bank auditor. I know the purpose of what a reconciliation is. But what I don't understand is this obsession with doing monthly reconciliations for personal accounts on your computer. First, I have not received a "paper" statement from my bank in over 20 years. My statements are all online. Second, I sign-in to my (checking and credit card) accounts almost daily. So I know exactly when every deposit or charge hits my accounts. Third, in this day and age, I write, maybe, one check a month, to my landscaper who does not have direct deport. Other than that, my 20-30 transactions per month are all electronic. Also, I charge almost everything on my charge card. So any money I spend is on my charge card statement. Fourth, I enter transactions in GnuCash whenever I feel I have a few spare moments and my GnuCash balances nearly always match my online account balances except for when my landscaper takes too long to cash his check, or an electronic transaction takes more than a day or two to clear. Fifth, the whole purpose of the reconciliation process is to identify transactions that you either know to be coming or that you think will be coming that have not been reflected on your current bank balance so you don't overdraw yo
Re: [GNC] Accoount Type Cash
Fred: On 2025-01-19 06:14, Fred Tydeman wrote: I am running GnuCash 5.10 on Fedora Linux 41 My Default Currency is USD I imported from a QIF file some stock transactions. I sold some Canada stock from my US brokerage account. The money went into a CAD cash account in the brokerage. The "dollar" amount in that CAD cash account is wrong. If I change the CAD account type from cash to asset, then the "dollar" amount is correct. So, are Cash account types limited to the default currency? No, not in my experience. I have GnuCash accounts of type "Cash" with currencies set to CAD, USD, EUR, JPY. My default currency is CAD. I have not had problems with accounts having the wrong numbers by virtue of their type being "Cash". From your description, the difference in account balance correlates with a transaction that is in a currency which you don't often use. Maybe the currency handling is not correct. Do your book properties include using trading accounts? Do you have a GnuCash account for the CAD cash balance in your brokerage which is separate from the GnuCash account for the USD cash balance? Best regards, —Jim DeLaHunt ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
[GNC] Fwd: Re: what is best reconcile/update procedure?
--- Begin Message --- Thank you for that. Very pertinent and important observations you make. At this early stage of my involvement with gnu cash I'm still unsure if my usage of it is optimal: am I doing things the easiest/best way? The 'mechanics' of it, you might say. Seems to me I do a lot of work just to get my transactions out of the bank and into gnu cash and reconcile. Seems to me I've heard of direct bank to gnu cash connection perhaps? Or even without that it could well be that I'm doing things a wrong way round and I'd love to know if so. :) ab p.s. am I doing this right? I'm just using 'reply' on my Yahoo mail client. I don't see where I can do the suggested 'reply list' or 'reply all' On Monday 20 January 2025 at 08:33:43 am ACDT, David Cousens wrote: There is no best reconciliation strategy. An appropriate strategy depends on exactly what you are using GnuCash for. A business with a high number of transactions will have a need for relatively frequent reconciliation to detect errors, uncashed checks, etc. and to satisfy any internal and external reportingand audit requirements. In the case of personal finances, the frequency of reconciliation required likely depends on the complexity of your personal finances. Like Ken most of my transactions are cashless these days, and being retired a lot fewer than they were when I was working and running a business. Then monthly reconciliations proved to be both necessary and useful. Now I reconcile usually quarterly or even semi-annually. Like Ken I check my accounts usually on a daily basis for major discrepancies in the balances and for the automatically direct debited transactions that some websites sign you up for on the pretence of paying for a one-off (I do try to avoid them) and obvious bank errors, but my bank has a pretty good error rate (haven't found one in the past 5 years). One factor that may influence timing would be a bank's policies with regard to how long you may have to dispute errors and relevant regulatory legislation that constrains application of such policies so it is worth checking up on what those policies may be. On updating I prefer to stay up to date with the latest version of GnuCash. Most Linux distributions are often well behind the most recent version. If you lag behind, particularly across the major version boundaries updating can become a little bit more complex. There are very rarely any major problems with the core functionality of Gnucash in updates. The developers have done a very good job of making updates as painless as possible with procedures to update data files built into the update where necessary changes are made to the data file structure. I build GnuCash from the stable source tarballs on release. I did a little bit of minor work on some code areas in the past so building from scratch does not faze me but some users may find it more daunting, mainly in having all the necessary dependency versions and development headers available. David Cousens On Sat, 2025-01-18 at 21:06 +, arthur brogard via gnucash-user wrote: > i just keep personal books for the family. > my update and reconcile procedure works but is a bit tedious. I > can't think of any better way and I doubt there is one but i thought > it might be good to ask. > At sort of almost random times I decide to update the books. So I > download from CBA transactions from the bank accounts. > then I put them in a spreadsheet. in date order. > then I inspect and compare with a transaction report from gnu cash - > one for each account - and identify transactions not yet in gnu cash. > delete all but those from the spreadsheet. > sort on description. > attach a fourth column for target account. > import to gnu cash. > that's the update > balances should agree. that's the reconcile. > all that downloading, spreadsheeting, sorting blah, blah. any > better way or that's just it? > > ___ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@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. --- End Message --- ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] what is best procedure to 'split off' to a new set of books?
Michael, My assumptions and reasonong in formulating the answer were that the total equity of the owner after the split comprised the Equity of his personal accounts plus the Equity of the business accounts. That is the owner of the business and the business are separate entities for accounting purposes. The real purpose of spliting the accounts is then to also split the equity which was previously just in the personal books before the business books were established and transfer the appropriate component of the equity and assets to the business entity. The process of splitting the books necessarily involves a transfer of equity from one set of books to another. By recording the business as an asset in the personal accounts no transfer of equity to the books of the new entity is achieved where there is a transfer of funds from say a bank account in the personal accounts to another asset account for the business in the personal set of books. Whereas crediting the appropriate asset account from which funds are transferred to the business (decreasing its balance) and debiting an Equity account (decreasing its balance) in the personal books recording contributions to the business decreases the equity in the personal books and then the second entry entry set in the business' books completes the transfer of equity to the new set of books for the business establishing the asset and equity transfer from the personal books to the business books. David On Sun, 2025-01-19 at 10:24 -0500, Michael or Penny Novack via gnucash- user wrote: > > > You also own the business. > > > > I would set up an account in Equity in your personal accounts > > "Contributions to xyz business" and a similar Equity account in the > > business books "Owners contributions". > > More generally, you own part of this business. > > Why under Equity? Why different from any other investment. I'd expect > to > be putting my ownership share of this business under Assets. > Otherwise > the same. If you use personal funds or credit on behalf of the > business, > the that represents a change in your investment. > > But yes, in the business's books, ownership shares under equity. > > Michael D Novack > > > ___ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@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. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@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.
Re: [GNC] what is best reconcile/update procedure?
Thanks for this. So it looks like I'm doing it the most mechanically efficient way I can. Good to know. I'm not well organised with it though. I haphazardly reconcile and update transactions at the moment. While I am learning. And going about setting up this second set of books for the business. p.s. I did learn the Bayesian matching was causing problems with my transaction imports to gnu cash. Since switching that off they're trouble free. Good to have your help, thankyou. :) ab On Monday 20 January 2025 at 09:53:40 am ACDT, David Cousens wrote: Arthur, If your bank has OFX/QFX export of the transactions this is usually the most reliable way of importing bank records into GnuCash as it is a fairly well defined standard protocol. CSV often takes a bit of work to do it relaibly as the protocol is less strictly defined. I used to diligently enter transactions from receipts while I was running a business but now that I am retired and I no longer have a check book and I get most receipts from most stores by email or sms in any case and most EFTPOSand credit card transactions appear in my account almost immediately, there was little advantage for me in doing this, so I just import the Bank records periodically and like Ken keep a close eye out for any unexpected changes in the account balances at the bank You may want to do reconciliations more frequently while getting up to speed on using Gnucash. Most banks issue statements monthly so there is little point in doing them more frequently than that. My bank has a facility to provide me with a statement at a specific date (for which they charge me extra) beyond the monthly cycle, but I would only use that where I have detected a discrepancy and i haven't had one for more than 5 years now. Whether you can use the aqbanking DirectConnectOFX interface will depend upon on whether your bank makes that interface available. Most banks in Australia don't for example ( they place stricter security requirements for software to have direct connections which open source software generally cannot meet) but I gather many US and European banks do. GnuCash has a lot of features to help improve the import of data mainly in matching imported transactions to existing transactions and automatically assigning the correct transfer account to the second entry of imported transactions. This is a statistical Bayesian matching and is "trained" by the account assignments you make in the import matching window of the import process. The training only occurs if you assign the accounts in this process and then complete the import and does not reflect any changes to the account assignments made after completion of the import process. Once this is trained and working well, the import process is generally a lot quicker. I might have to manually assign 6-8 transactions a month on import (usually out of ~100 transactions imported) although it does pay to check that the import matcher has assigned the correct account to each transactions Allowing it to import to an incorrect account trains it to do the wrong thing. You currently are replying only to my direct email and not to the mailing list "gnucash-user@gnucash.org". If there is no "reply all,"or "reply to list" in the yahoo mail client ( it may be there but hidden), just add that email address to the "To" line in your reply. I have forwarded your email which came directly to me to the list. David Cousens On Sun, 2025-01-19 at 22:32 +, arthur brogard wrote: Thank you for that. Very pertinent and important observations you make. At this early stage of my involvement with gnu cash I'm still unsure if my usage of it is optimal: am I doing things the easiest/best way? The 'mechanics' of it, you might say. Seems to me I do a lot of work just to get my transactions out of the bank and into gnu cash and reconcile. Seems to me I've heard of direct bank to gnu cash connection perhaps? Or even without that it could well be that I'm doing things a wrong way round and I'd love to know if so. :) ab p.s. am I doing this right? I'm just using 'reply' on my Yahoo mail client. I don't see where I can do the suggested 'reply list' or 'reply all' On Monday 20 January 2025 at 08:33:43 am ACDT, David Cousens wrote: There is no best reconciliation strategy. An appropriate strategy depends on exactly what you are using GnuCash for. A business with a high number of transactions will have a need for relatively frequent reconciliation to detect errors, uncashed checks, etc. and to satisfy any internal and external reportingand audit requirements. In the case of personal finances, the frequency of reconciliation required likely depends on the complexity of your personal finances. Like Ken most of my transactions are cashless these days, and being retired a lot fewer than they were when I was working and running a business. Then monthly reconciliations proved to be both necessar
