A section in the Tutorial and Concepts Guide may be even more appropriate and then link the FAQ to it.
That then provides the option when the question comes up repeatedly in the list of just providing the link to it. David Cousens On Sat, 2024-01-13 at 11:19 -0600, R Losey wrote: > Pretty much, yes, although I found it a bit weak on the note that it is not > really necessary. > > But the larger issue is that I believe this email list could benefit from a > FAQ that is posted monthly or every other month to this group. The wiki has > some neat ideas about tracking year to year equity growth. > > I gather that the main reason for "closing" books is that on the "Accounts" > tab, one can see the year-to-date expenses and income instead of the total > since one started using GnuCash. It's a neat idea. > > On Sat, Jan 13, 2024 at 10:59 AM sunfish62--- via gnucash-user < > gnucash-user@gnucash.org> wrote: > > > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Closing_Books > > > > Does that cover it? > > > > David T. > > > > On Jan 13, 2024, 4:25 PM, at 4:25 PM, Adrien Monteleone < > > adrien.montele...@lusfiber.net> wrote: > > > You could add A2b: > > > > > > Export your Chart of Accounts and write down the ending balances as > > > needed. Start a new file, import your exported chart of accounts and > > > set > > > opening balances to the old ending balances. > > > > > > This method is more like Pen & Paper days in that each file only > > > contains one period (year in this case) of data. > > > > > > ----- > > > As for A2(a), there's not really a solid way to 'mark' a file as > > > read-only if you have access to the file. (anyone determined enough can > > > > > > edit it) Some folks write it to a CD-ROM, but that's about as good as > > > you could expect. > > > > > > In addition, some folks also archive PDF copies of their year-end > > > reports with the file. While the file could always be changed after the > > > > > > fact, the reports reflect the state of the accounts as of when they > > > were > > > generated. (which of course are no more immutable than the file, but at > > > > > > least offer a reference point) > > > > > > Regards, > > > Adrien > > > > > > On 1/13/24 12:16 AM, R Losey wrote: > > > > I suspect that this topic comes up about every New Year - perhaps it > > > is > > > > worth putting in a FAQ (if it's not in one), and perhaps posting the > > > FAQ > > > > monthly to this list. In the relatively short time I've been on this > > > list, > > > > I definitely see some repeated questions, including this end-of-year > > > > question that I created, and therefore may have errors in it. > > > > > > > > ------- > > > > Question: "How do I start a new year in GnuCash?" Alternatively, "How > > > do I > > > > close out the old year in GnuCash?" > > > > > > > > Answers as far as I can remember them: > > > > General Answer: You need to determine precisely what you are trying > > > to > > > > accomplish in GnuCash. You may not need to do anything (see A1). If > > > you > > > > want to keep a backup-copy of the previous year, see A2. If you want > > > to > > > > close the books in the accounting sense (reset the balances of the > > > income > > > > and expense accounts), see A3. > > > > > > > > A1: There is no necessity to take any action at the start of a New > > > Year. > > > > GnuCash can keep several years of data in its compressed XML file > > > without > > > > it growing too large. > > > > > > > > A2: The best thing to do here is to be sure that there is no > > > additional > > > > transactions for end-of-year, run whatever end-of-year reports you > > > need, > > > > then shut down GnuCash and copy your main data file to some safe > > > place. If > > > > that area supports it, consider marking the file as read-only. You > > > should > > > > probably note the year in the name: "SmithFamilyFY2022.gnucash" or > > > > something like that. There is no need to delete old data (see A1). > > > > > > > > A3: See the GnuCash Manual, section 8.9 for a discussion about how to > > > do > > > > this task, along with the caveats. > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > 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. > > > > _______________________________________________ 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.
