Gary,
1. Turn on Trading Accounts.
File > Properties > Accounts > Use Trading Accounts
2. Set full transaction view options. (I find this helps to see everything
about a transaction and to better understand double-entry)
View > Transactions Journal (optionally, View > Double Line)
3. Switch to formal accounting labels (again, helps to understand double-entry,
the non-formal terms can get confusing I find)
Preferences > Accounts > Use Formal Accounting Labels
4. Set up your online quotes
a. If you have not already done so, read the relevant sections of the
Help Manual
* https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v3/C/gnucash-help/tool-price.html
*
https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v3/C/gnucash-help/tool-security-edit.html
b. Follow the instructions in the Help manual to setup Online Price
Retrieval
*
https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v3/C/gnucash-help/acct-create.html#Online-price-setup
* get your Alpha Vantage API key, and enter it in the Preferences >
Online Quotes section
5. Add XAU as a Currency in the Price Editor
You can choose Bid, Ask, or Last as a price type, also available are:
’Net’ which I’m not sure of, and ‘Unknown’ which I can’t fathom the purpose
for. I went with ‘Last’ because that is what I had been tracking for years
before I started using GnuCash, but ‘Bid’ is closest to what you will get if
you sell on that day. (‘Bid' and ‘Ask' aren’t always available, ‘Last’ is
reliable)
*note* XAU & XAG are spot prices of 1 ounce of metal. (XPT and XPD are
available as well) But this does not mean the price quoted is what to expect to
receive or pay. Rather, these are based on a 1 Kilogram contract (32.1507 Troy
ounces) for Gold, or a 1000 Troy ounce contract for Silver. But it is likely
the best approximation absent an actual buying/selling price from a real-world
transaction.
You can always enter your own price quotes in the Price Editor manually
if you like. (or you are having technical difficulties retrieving them)
6. Create your Asset holding account
You can place this in the Asset tree where you want, but for something
more formal, I suggest:
Assets:Current Assets:Other (in my case, I labeled ‘Other’ as ‘Metals &
Collectables’)
You’ll likely want to make that a Placeholder account so you don’t put
any transactions in it and create sub accounts for each metal type:
Assets:Current Assets:Metals & Collectables:Gold Bullion
Assets:Current Assets:Metals & Collectables:Gold Numismatics
Assets:Current Assets:Metals & Collectables:Silver Bullion
Assets:Current Assets:Metals & Collectables:Silver Numismatics
etc.
Set this account as type ‘Cash’
Set the currency to XAU (or other metal as needed) for the bullion
accounts.
You don’t need separate accounts for each form of bullion as bullion is
valued all the same. (a bar or ingot is the same as a bullion coin for example)
I do however set my Description or Notes to reflect what I actually purchased.
(bars, Eagles, etc.) This allows me to do Transaction Reports to show those
items if I wish.
For Numismatics, I set those accounts to my home currency and book them
at actual purchase price. I don’t estimate any ‘unrealized gain’ on them as
there is no way to tell what they might fetch at sale. (as a numismatic) If you
want to track these as bullion instead, you can just lump them in the other
account entered as their own fractions/multiples of metal.
7. Enter your Opening Balance
This is for any holdings prior to the date you want to start the
account, usually the opening date of your file
a. Enter the amount of metal in ounces as a debit assigned to this
account (already listed by default), using decimals as needed. (if you had a
1-kilo bar, you’d enter XAU 32.1507 as the amount)
b. Assign the balancing split as a credit in your home currency to the
Equity:Opening Balances account
c. When you hit [Enter] GnuCash will dutifully create the additional
trading account splits to balance with your book’s home currency.
Here’s a generic 1oz. example using yesterday’s last price of
$1328.67412 USD:
Dr. Assets:Current Assets:Metals & Collectables:Gold 1.000000
Dr. Trading:CURRENCY:USD $1328.67
Cr. Equity:Opening Balances
$1328.67
Cr. Trading:CURRENCY:XAU
1.000000
*note* due to the messy fractions, when you enter the credit to Equity
and hit [Enter] GnuCash will more than likely give you a pop up asking you to
confirm the currency transfer. (technically, that is what you are doing,
transferring one currency asset to another) At the bottom of this window are
two options: Exchange Rate & Debit Amount. You’ll want to choose Debit Amount
and set it to the same quantity of metal you are entering in the transaction.
(In the above example, 1.000000) Otherwise, you’ll likely end up with an extra
split to the Imbalance account to handle rounding.
*note* this will create a price in the Price db based on this
transaction. You don’t want to ever delete or edit that price unless the actual
transaction was wrong to begin with. (the Price editor will indicate which
prices are the result of transactions)
8. Enter a buy transaction (I suspect this is where you are now)
Same as the Opening Balance, but this time, the balancing split will be
a credit to either a cash or checking account.
Same notes apply about choosing Debit Amount when confirming the
currency transfer.
----------
Reporting
You can now select your new asset accounts (as well as the trading accounts)
and turn on the trading accounts section in the P&L and Balance Sheet reports
to see your performance. Of course, you won’t see anything interesting until
there is a change in price and then, usually across periods. You’ll want to
likely choose ’Nearest in time’ for your prices in the report options.
Hope that helps,
Regards,
Adrien
> On Feb 27, 2019, at 6:17 AM, Gary Holtum <diamondhranc...@earthlink.net>
> wrote:
>
> Adrien,
>
> I guess I am missing the point here. I can't enter a simple transaction for
> buying gold coins. I know the quantity and the total cost. I cr cash and dr
> gold acct. I get imbalance. I don't understand need for "Trading Acct" on. I
> tried "buy" gold and "sell" cash but got imbalance errors.
>
> Presently. I have an acct, gold, that has a balance representing the total of
> three purchases at different unit costs. I would like to be able to see the
> current increase or decrease in value of the total based on market
> fluctuations.
>
> I set up a new currency account using XAU but I can't enter the transactions
> without errors. I am doing something wrong!
>
> A detailed walk through of a transaction would be very helpful.
>
> Gary
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