Re: Tracking a TIAA mixed fund account

[Mike Alexander]

> On Jul 26, 2017, at 10:27 PM, AC  wrote:
> 
> I'm going to try
> the structure in a new file and see how it behaves.  If everything looks
> ok then I'll recreate the structure in my main file and start entering
> the data.

For what it’s worth, I’ve been doing it that way for years and it’s worked well.

One thing you might want to be aware of is that it works better if you have a 
separate top level account for each TIAA account.  I have three (a 401A and two 
403Bs) and by putting each in  separate account I can import the transaction 
files I download from the TIAA web site easily.  This makes entering my monthly 
MDO payout much easier.  The MDO payout is a retirement payment that I’m 
required by the IRS to take (so they can tax me on it).  It consists of a small 
sale in each of my funds followed by a transfer to my bank account.  Entering 
all this by hand is a real pain.

Mike

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Re: Methods to Track Gift Cards and Similar Items

[Mike or Penny Novack]

On 7/31/2017 4:24 PM, Paul W. wrote:



On the one hand, these items are a form of income.  As such, I could track them 
as income.
On the other hand, I use these items  they way I use a credit card to make 
purchases.  As such, I could track them as a credit card.
Are there other hands with other methods?

Stop.

This is DOUBLE ENTRY bookkeeping. So the "on the one hand income" misses 
the point. When you receive a "gift card" (etc.) the credit side of that 
transaction would be income but the debit side an asset account. Not 
like a credit card but like a debit card.


When you use the card (or some portion of it) the transaction might be a 
debit to some expense account and the credit to that asset account


Michael D Novack
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Re: Methods to Track Gift Cards and Similar Items

[DaveC49]

The gift card is clearly an asset. When you receive it it is income. In most
jurisdictions one would expect gift income to be not taxable however this
may not always be the case.

I generally have income streams that are both taxable and non-taxable so I
already have placeholder subaccounts of Income for Taxable and Non-taxable
income. When you receive a gift card the transaction would look like:

  Db  Cr
Asset:Giftcards$50
Income:NonTaxable:Giftcards 50

and when you use the gift card it is like any other expense

  Db  Cr
Asset:Giftcards $50
Expense: ...50

If the income was taxable you would place the giftcards account under a
taxable placeholder instead of a non-taxable placeholder.

The treatment for a credit card issued for a returned item is slightly
different though. It is still an asset but instead of having the associated
income split it will have an credit entry to an expense account cancelling
the previous debit entry for the purchase.

"Rigorous, double-entry accounting is not essential.  Imbalance on one side
of a transaction is OK. "  

As Gnucash is a double entry accounting system it is unlikely that any
method which has an imbalance is likely to produce a satisfactory result and
may result in inaccurate reports. 

David Cousens



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Re: Methods to Track Gift Cards and Similar Items

[Buddha Buck]

All those cards represent something that you own and can convert into stuff
of value. As such, they are assets, much like cash. They are not, in and of
themselves income, any more than cash is. They are not your liabilities,
which makes them different than credit cards, and should not be tracked
that way.

Well, I guess it matters what you mean by a "merchant card" -- if you mean
a credit card that can be used only at one merchant, then it's a credit
card; if you mean a gift card that can only be used at one merchant, then
it's a gift card.

Looking through my wallet, I see the following items:

A debit card
A credit card
A stored value card

The debit cards are tied to my bank accounts, and so any transaction I do
using them comes out of the relevant Asset account (debit Expense:Misc,
credit Asset:Bank)
The credit cards are tied to my credit accounts, and so any transaction I
do using them comes out of the relevant Liability account (debit
Expense:Misc, credit Liability:CreditCard)
The stored value cards ideally would each have their own asset account, and
each transaction I do using them references that account (debit
Expense:Food, credit Asset:StarbucksCard)

Come the holidays, I get from my mother a gift of a $50 Amazon.com gift
card. This is technically "income", and should ideally be recorded as such
(debit Assets:AmazonGiftBalance, credit Income:Gifts). When I buy something
from Amazon, I'd first credit the Assets:AmazonGiftBalance account.


On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 5:09 PM Phil Longstaff 
wrote:

> I track gift cards as assets, under Current Assets
>
> On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 4:24 PM, Paul W.  wrote:
>
> > I am seeking guidance on methods to track items such as gift cards, gift
> > certificates, merchant cards,  bank reward cards, and store-credit cards
> > for returned purchases.
> >
> > On the one hand, these items are a form of income.  As such, I could
> track
> > them as income.
> > On the other hand, I use these items  they way I use a credit card to
> make
> > purchases.  As such, I could track them as a credit card.
> > Are there other hands with other methods?
> >
> > I am looking for a simple, consistent method for all of these items so
> > that I can easily track when I received the item and its initial value,
> and
> > track the expenditures.  I want to keep all of these items in the same
> part
> > of my account tree.   Rigorous, double-entry accounting is not essential.
> > Imbalance on one side of a transaction is OK.
> >
> > What are the pros and cons of the various methods to track these items?
> >
> > 
> > Actress Tells All: "I Felt Bloated, Tired...Now I Know Why"
> > ActivatedYou
> > http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/597f9255edc1c12556933st01vuc
> > ___
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Re: Methods to Track Gift Cards and Similar Items

[Phil Longstaff]

I track gift cards as assets, under Current Assets

On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 4:24 PM, Paul W.  wrote:

> I am seeking guidance on methods to track items such as gift cards, gift
> certificates, merchant cards,  bank reward cards, and store-credit cards
> for returned purchases.
>
> On the one hand, these items are a form of income.  As such, I could track
> them as income.
> On the other hand, I use these items  they way I use a credit card to make
> purchases.  As such, I could track them as a credit card.
> Are there other hands with other methods?
>
> I am looking for a simple, consistent method for all of these items so
> that I can easily track when I received the item and its initial value, and
> track the expenditures.  I want to keep all of these items in the same part
> of my account tree.   Rigorous, double-entry accounting is not essential.
> Imbalance on one side of a transaction is OK.
>
> What are the pros and cons of the various methods to track these items?
>
> 
> Actress Tells All: "I Felt Bloated, Tired...Now I Know Why"
> ActivatedYou
> http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/597f9255edc1c12556933st01vuc
> ___
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Methods to Track Gift Cards and Similar Items

[Paul W.]

I am seeking guidance on methods to track items such as gift cards, gift 
certificates, merchant cards,  bank reward cards, and store-credit cards for 
returned purchases.

On the one hand, these items are a form of income.  As such, I could track them 
as income.
On the other hand, I use these items  they way I use a credit card to make 
purchases.  As such, I could track them as a credit card.
Are there other hands with other methods?

I am looking for a simple, consistent method for all of these items so that I 
can easily track when I received the item and its initial value, and track the 
expenditures.  I want to keep all of these items in the same part of my account 
tree.   Rigorous, double-entry accounting is not essential.  Imbalance on one 
side of a transaction is OK.
  
What are the pros and cons of the various methods to track these items?


Actress Tells All: "I Felt Bloated, Tired...Now I Know Why"
ActivatedYou
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/597f9255edc1c12556933st01vuc
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GnuCash with bad network connection

[David Carlson]

My home Wi-Fi has suddenly developed a bad case of dropouts in spite of a
very strong signal.  Several times a day various devices need to reconnect.

With that background, if GnuCash is in the process of saving the data file
(over Wi-Fi) when the dropout happens, GnuCash appears to hang and my
Windows 7 OS reports that the file save failed and after the destination
returns it asks me if I want to try again, but it needs a file name.

Through trial and error I was able to revive Gnucash and let it do the save
using it's internal procedure without crashing and losing data.

My question is whether there is a place in the documentation that
summarizes troubleshooting various file save problems such as this or
possibly other issues with saving or backing up to places other than the
local hard drive.

I heard through the grapevine that the Q product has recently been having
serious data loss issues with this type of network problem.

David C
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Re: For UK users: Will gnucash get ready for Making Tax, Digital ?

[GWB]

This reminds me of an earlier question from a user in Sweden.
Apparently governments (Sweden in that case, the UK in this one) are
getting into the habit of specifying not only acceptable tax software
but also accounting software.  The UK has not yet required businesses
of a certain size to use specifically approved tax or accounting
software (have they?), but it seems that Making Tax Digital might lead
there.

But who knows.  I'm averse to having information stored in a digital
format on government servers because it will eventually be hacked,
stolen, or otherwise used for something other than the original and
limited intention (you can pick your favourite bogeyman here; your own
government, the Russians, the Chinese, cyber criminals, etc.)   In a
better world, when HMRC (or the IRS, or the Australia Tax Office)
requires something, it should provide the software to do it, free.  It
appears that in the UK you won't have a choice after 2018.

Thompson Reuters already makes MTD software, or close to it:

https://www.digita.com/pro/making-tax-digital/what-is-making-tax-digital.aspx

Why not ask (and suggest!) HMRC and the MTD office if they will be
paying for the cost of the compliance software?  Users could deduct
the cost of the software from their VAT payments (quarterly?  It's not
clear to me).  And it would be great if the MTD software worked with
gnucash .txf imports.  You can do a lot to customise the txf exports
from gnucash.  Compliance software might already be "write off" (it's
been a while since I looked at the UK regs), but much nicer if paid
for by HMRC up front.

I would worry about keeping "electronic records on transaction basis",
but that's a larger discussion.  It will likely be introduced as a way
to reduce reporting errors, but like FACTA in the US, it will be used
in a way to penalise the vast majority of law abiding citizens and
firms in order to try to dig up criminal activity.

FOSS doesn't work for the reasons Buddha Buck outlined, and more.  It
would be great if someone volunteered to work on a txf export template
for MTD.  Beyond that, I'm not sure how the devs would "hard wire" MTD
(or other jurisdiction specific) features into gnucash that would meet
the requirements of the Swedish or UK governments.  That sounds like a
lot of extra effort even if it were possible.  I think Alain has it
right, and perhaps its easiest to use the txf export from gnucash to
import to another program.

You might be stuck with using gnucash for the bookkeeping, and then
digita for the reporting.  I agree that is "sub optimal", but that
describes tax compliance in most jurisdictions.  Out of curiosity, who
wants MTD?  Is it mostly HMRC and large firms which can easily comply
with new regs to the disadvantage of their smaller competitors?
Sounds like the EU (or the US) to me.  You can like or dislike Brexit,
but one thing it does is give UK citizens more say over their own
governance.  If MTD has been delayed because of Brexit, that's
probably good; the government should be devoting its energies on
something like a Swiss solution to synchronise UK regs with both WTO
and the EU.  MTD seems a lesser priority (but I do agree with you that
the snap general election was a dumb idea).  Sorry you have to put up
with it.

Gordon

On Fri, Jul 28, 2017 at 4:01 AM, Geert Janssens
 wrote:
> A shared library would even better imo. Similar to what aqbanking does for 
> online bank communications.
>
> That would allow for easier integration with gnucash and even other open 
> source applications that wish to interact with HMRC.
>
> Regards,
> Geert
>
> Alain Williams  schreef op 27 juli 2017 11:01:10 CEST:
>>On Thu, Jul 27, 2017 at 12:52:41AM +, Buddha Buck wrote:
>>
>>> GnuCash does not currently (to my knowledge) support any
>>> jurisdiction-specify tax policy or reporting requirements. To do so
>>for one
>>> would imply that it should do so for all, and that is a maintenance
>>> nightmare. As such, I think it more likely that someone would write a
>>> program that can take reports or data that GnuCash can already
>>generate
>>> (CSV exports? OFX exports?) and uploads the necessary info to HMRC.
>>
>>A small program that takes a well defined import and can talk the HMRC
>>Making
>>Tax Difficult protocol might be the best way forwards; similar programs
>>could
>>then also be written to talk to the tax people in other countries -
>>without
>>cluttering up the core of Gnucash.
>>
>>I am not sure, however, if this would be enough to keep HMRC happy -
>>they seem
>>to want verification of the whole accounts program ... I am talking
>>about a
>>standalone shim/add-on.
>>
>>I know many companies that have their own accounts s/ware, written over
>>many
>>years that does just what they need. MTD could cause huge problems if
>>there is a
>>lot of effort in getting these certified or if the companies need to
>>change to
>>use an off-the-shelf/bought-in package.
>>
>>I don't 

Re: For UK users: Will gnucash get ready for Making Tax, Digital ?

[Derek Atkins]

Mike,

mike.m...@gmx.net writes:

>[If you don't mind me saying this: I haven't seen mailman lists for
>quite some years and I was a little surprised to see they still exist.
>I could not find any way how to add another comment to a given thread,
>despite having started the thread myself.  This contribution may well
>appear as a new thread]

That's funny -- I see mailman lists every day (not just gnucash -- I'm
subscribed to several dozen lists, all run by mailman).  You must be
hiding under a rock (or living in some non-technical land) to have not
seen mailman.   Then again, it still surprises me when I see an actual
LISTSERV list pop up on my radar.

Having said that, to add to a thread you just need to reply to a message
in that thread, like how I'm replying to your message here.

Enjoy,

> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.

-derek

-- 
   Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
   Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
   URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/PP-ASEL-IA N1NWH
   warl...@mit.eduPGP key available
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gnucash can't find tutorial & concepts guide

[morris beavers]

 New user/installation on RaspberryPi.

When I select Help/Tutorial and Concepts Guide, I get the message:
"GnuCash could not find the files for the help documentation. This is
likely because the 'gnucash-docs' package is not installed."

dpkg --list | grep gnucash reports:
ii gnucash 1:2.6.4-3 armhf personal and small-business financial-accounting
software
ii gnucash-common 1:2.6.4-3 all common files for the financial-accounting
software Gnucash
ii gnucash-docs 2.6.4-1 all Documentation for gnucash, a personal finance
tracking program

How to fix the help menu?

Thanks, Morris
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New Report. Suitable for VAT/GST returns.

[Christopher Lam]

Hi All

After many years of trying to hack scheme, I've finally been able to create
a custom report building on previous efforts by Doug Doughty. Report is
accessible in Report > Business > BAS/VAT Report.

I attach .scm file to be loaded into ~/.gnucash/config.user as usual, and
an example report output. I feel this is the missing report for periodic
(eg quarterly) tax reporting as required in some authorities e.g. UK and
Australia. Formulas are modifiable with some effort.

I hope this is useful to some. The learning curve was painful! Repo at
https://github.com/christopherlam/bas-report

C
  BAS/VAT Report (beta)

  From 01/07/2016 To 30/06/2017

   Input Tax accounts: (Assets:GST:Paid)

   Output Tax accounts: (Assets:GST:Collected)

   Date Description Total
   Sales
   BAS G1 GST on
   Sales
   BAS 1A/VAT 1 Sales
   without GST
   VAT 6 Total
   Purchases
   BAS G11 GST on
   Purchases
   BAS 1B/VAT 4 Purchases
   without GST
   VAT 7 Bank
   Remittance
   [1]Expenses
   05/02/2017 Purchase services for $2000 + $200 [2]$0.00 [3]$0.00
   [4]$0.00 [5]$2,200.00 [6]$200.00 [7]$2,000.00 [8]-$2,200.00
   08/02/2017 Purchase services for $1500, no GST charged [9]$0.00
   [10]$0.00 [11]$0.00 [12]$1,500.00 [13]$0.00 [14]$1,500.00
   [15]-$1,500.00
   26/04/2017 Hybrid. Earn $4000 + $400 GST, spend $1000 + $100 GST. Net =
   $3300 into bank [16]-$4,400.00 [17]-$400.00 [18]-$4,000.00
   [19]$1,100.00 [20]$100.00 [21]$1,000.00 [22]$3,300.00
   Total For Expenses -$4,400.00 -$400.00 -$4,000.00 $4,800.00 $300.00
   $4,500.00 -$400.00
   [23]Foreign Purchases
   10/02/2017 Foreign purchase. £500GBP = $800, with $80 GST #meaningless
   [24]$0.00 [25]$0.00 [26]$0.00 [27]$880.00 [28]$80.00 [29]$800.00
   [30]-$880.00
   15/04/2017 Foreign purchase. £625 = $1000, no tax involved [31]$0.00
   [32]$0.00 [33]$0.00 [34]$1,000.00 [35]$0.00 [36]$1,000.00
   [37]-$1,000.00
   Total For Foreign Purchases $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $1,880.00 $80.00
   $1,800.00 -$1,880.00
   [38]Income
   01/01/2017 Income $1000 + $100GST [39]-$1,100.00 [40]-$100.00
   [41]-$1,000.00 [42]$0.00 [43]$0.00 [44]$0.00 [45]$1,100.00
   03/01/2017 Double Income $2x1000 + 2x$100 GST [46]-$2,200.00
   [47]-$200.00 [48]-$2,000.00 [49]$0.00 [50]$0.00 [51]$0.00 [52]$2,200.00
   08/01/2017 Income $1000, but only $300 attracted a tax of $30. $700 was
   not taxable. [53]-$1,030.00 [54]-$30.00 [55]-$1,000.00 [56]$0.00
   [57]$0.00 [58]$0.00 [59]$1,030.00
   Total For Income -$4,330.00 -$330.00 -$4,000.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
   $4,330.00
 __

   Grand Total -$8,730.00 -$730.00 -$8,000.00 $6,680.00 $380.00 $6,300.00
   $2,050.00

References

   1. gnc-register:acct-guid=84bf6de2a6e0dc44fbeae960a644dcb6
   2. gnc-register:trans-guid=105c39a63908b4f002791bb1c8457d2d
   3. gnc-register:trans-guid=105c39a63908b4f002791bb1c8457d2d
   4. gnc-register:trans-guid=105c39a63908b4f002791bb1c8457d2d
   5. gnc-register:trans-guid=105c39a63908b4f002791bb1c8457d2d
   6. gnc-register:trans-guid=105c39a63908b4f002791bb1c8457d2d
   7. gnc-register:trans-guid=105c39a63908b4f002791bb1c8457d2d
   8. gnc-register:trans-guid=105c39a63908b4f002791bb1c8457d2d
   9. gnc-register:trans-guid=1ea5114fa662a4661e0cce96a0770de1
  10. gnc-register:trans-guid=1ea5114fa662a4661e0cce96a0770de1
  11. gnc-register:trans-guid=1ea5114fa662a4661e0cce96a0770de1
  12. gnc-register:trans-guid=1ea5114fa662a4661e0cce96a0770de1
  13. gnc-register:trans-guid=1ea5114fa662a4661e0cce96a0770de1
  14. gnc-register:trans-guid=1ea5114fa662a4661e0cce96a0770de1
  15. gnc-register:trans-guid=1ea5114fa662a4661e0cce96a0770de1
  16. gnc-register:trans-guid=7fc1a61ec5f6db9ee6352c672022007c
  17. gnc-register:trans-guid=7fc1a61ec5f6db9ee6352c672022007c
  18. gnc-register:trans-guid=7fc1a61ec5f6db9ee6352c672022007c
  19. gnc-register:trans-guid=7fc1a61ec5f6db9ee6352c672022007c
  20. gnc-register:trans-guid=7fc1a61ec5f6db9ee6352c672022007c
  21. gnc-register:trans-guid=7fc1a61ec5f6db9ee6352c672022007c
  22. gnc-register:trans-guid=7fc1a61ec5f6db9ee6352c672022007c
  23. gnc-register:acct-guid=6f699d49e5af88ed9138a576ed4147d5
  24. gnc-register:trans-guid=959074dd6e5e59d1a4ae145abb884043
  25. gnc-register:trans-guid=959074dd6e5e59d1a4ae145abb884043
  26. gnc-register:trans-guid=959074dd6e5e59d1a4ae145abb884043
  27. gnc-register:trans-guid=959074dd6e5e59d1a4ae145abb884043
  28. gnc-register:trans-guid=959074dd6e5e59d1a4ae145abb884043
  29. gnc-register:trans-guid=959074dd6e5e59d1a4ae145abb884043
  30. gnc-register:trans-guid=959074dd6e5e59d1a4ae145abb884043
  31. gnc-register:trans-guid=04b7445ded7b9c8626510cc8dce8e97b
  32. gnc-register:trans-guid=04b7445ded7b9c8626510cc8dce8e97b
  33. gnc-register:trans-guid=04b7445ded7b9c8626510cc8dce8e97b
  34. gnc-register:trans-guid=04b7445ded7b9c8626510cc8dce8e97b
  35. gnc-register:trans-guid=04b7445ded7b9c8626510cc8dce8e97b
  36. gnc-register:trans-guid=04b7445ded7b9c8626510cc8dce8e97b
  37. 

Re: 'unknown' column in Income Statement / Profit & Loss

[azalea4va]

William Moore wrote
> Is there something I can do to remove this column? Currently I have to
> export the report and edit the html to get a presentable report.

I notice this bug has not yet been corrected yet.  A simple workaround is to
create an empty trading account in your list of accounts, you can even hide
it.  That will make the Income Report happy.  




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