d) What you can;t do is have it both ways. Traditional double entry
bookkeeping allows only one tree structure for the CoA. To get it
different in different reports you would have to BOTH set up the CoA
correctly AND select just certain accounts for the report.
Of course you can by running the report filtered for transactions with or
without tag(s). (It is an unfortunate term because most searches will find
the term used in the context of computer code rather than filtering
transactions for reports.)
I don't think you are picturing what I meant by both ways.
Say doing organizational reporting, and this organization (among its
other activities) conducts several "events" every year. naturally the
BoD will want to see accounting by event (what were the expenses and
revenues for THIS event; how much did it cost us to put on the event or
how much did we make, compare the separate event report with those of
prior years, how about all events together (will come back to that).
One of the expenses associated with each event would be for printing
fliers, postage for mailing, etc. (things that can be considered
"printing and postage") so under each event, such an account. BUT
"printing and postage" is a line item on the 990/990EZ and also going to
have to report the total for this activity sort WITHOUT printing and
postage since that's a separate line item.
So -- if the CoA structured correctly will be able to produce reports.
a) For each event, P&L (select just the accounts of that event)
b) The totals for all events NOT including the "printing and postage"
expense (again, by selecting the accounts to include)
c) Printing and postage total for the organization (again selecting all
the "printing and postage" accounts -- note that some of these will be
other than as an expense of some event)
You aren't thinking of all the things the Treasurer of an org is going
to be wanting from the books. ONE set of books, able to produce reports
for various purposes, at different levels of detail. For example, the
BoD might want to see the total for "independent contractors" but not
how much paid to each let alone how much of what was paid to each was
"compensation" and how much "reimbursement of expenses" (so whether a
1099-MISC will be needed to be filed to whom and if so, for how much)
That's why I am stressing "get the CoA" right so you can get all that
you need out of it. You can always reduce the amount of detail in
reports, specialize reports, etc. later but only if captured in the
first place. And keep in mind that you do not necessarily have to do all
the reduction of detail, specialization, etc. INSIDE gnucash. You can
also export reports and then do the rest of it using your favorite
editor << that's how I was told to do it by a lawyer/accountant on one
of the BODs -- he said that's how any of us accountants would do it --
and mind, as a "pro" I could have coded custom reports ->>
Michael D Novack
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