Mea Culpa Concerning the year end discussion, which I have been following, my input was to mention that the manual stated that if you close the books the report totals may be different, and I postulated that this was so as I had tested it and indeed they were different QED. However, as the discussion progressed, I began to doubt my conclusions and went to investigate further, and found that after 'Closing' the books, then opening each report and running a 'Clear All' accounts and then 'Select All' accounts then 'Apply', the reports- P&L, TB and BS all reported correctly. This is most pleasing, as I am definitely a 'Close the books and draw a line under them' person, and it was a 'mind splinter' not to have everything zeroed at start of year.
On Sat, 8 Apr 2023 at 09:12, G R Hewitt <hewit...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > *'When I was a systems designer for corporate accounting systems in the > 80s, it was entirely anathema for anything to be modified, EVER. The only > way to fix an error, even one made seconds ago, was to add a reversing > entry* > * and then re-add (the correct version of) the original.'* > > I was/am a fan of that, especially in a multi-user environment. > Correcting the original entry, especially when you don't know what you are > doing is fraught with problems later on; > especially susceptible to this was Sage Line 50, particularly when people > who shouldn't have but did have 'Manager' > level access. > > On Sat, 8 Apr 2023 at 01:36, <p...@kroitor.ca> wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> I'm sure many here will consider the following to be a less "legit" >> approach, but I just wanted to chime in to say that I use a very different >> way of dealing with year-ends closings. >> >> Firstly, you should know three things: >> >> 1. All the Close Book function really does is create two split >> transactions >> on the specified closing date: one that zeroes out all the Income >> Accounts, >> and another that zeroes the Cost (Expense) Accounts. This allows you to >> start the next fiscal year with zero balances in income and expense >> accounts. The other side of each transaction is booked to whatever Equity >> account you specify when closing. >> >> 2. You can easily reverse the effect of the effect of closing by simply >> deleting the two closing transactions, and you can redo the closing again >> at >> any time too. In fact, if you must "fix" a closed prior year (see note >> below), it's easier to delete the closing entries, make the fix, and rerun >> the closing than it is to manually tweak the closing entries. >> >> 3. I have found some reports do allow stripping out the closing entries -- >> and avoiding a nonsensical report -- but others don't have this feature. >> There's a post of mine here a few weeks ago about a five-year history >> report >> that always shows zeros for the first four years, because the report >> includes the closing entries for each year, which (by design) reverses the >> effect of all other transactions in the year. One (messy) approach to >> solving this involves making a temporary copy of the data file, deleting >> the >> closing transactions for all prior years, running the historical reports, >> and finally deleting the temporary copy (note that the approach described >> by >> others here doesn't work when trying to get a five-year cost history). >> >> That being said, there are comments in various Gnucash places >> (Documentation, Wiki, Mailing List histories) to the effect that closing >> books is considered a slightly old-fashioned way of doing things, and >> although perhaps not discouraged, isn't strictly necessary. My own >> preference is to do annual closings on all five sets of books I track. It >> makes some reporting a little trickier to obtain, but on balance I like it >> better. >> >> The other point relates to what I said before about "fixing" a closed >> prior >> year. When I was a systems designer for corporate accounting systems in >> the >> 80s, it was entirely anathema for anything to be modified, EVER. The only >> way to fix an error, even one made seconds ago, was to add a reversing >> entry >> and then re-add (the correct version of) the original. Later systems >> became >> more and more liberal about this -- there are still always audit trails if >> one really must dig into things in cases like fraud -- and now we have >> reached a point where nothing is really locked in stone forever. >> >> Everyone here will have their own policies / morals about what is allowed >> to >> be modified later. In my case, I'm retired and the books I track aren't >> for >> legal / tax reporting, so I can change prior years and rerun things when >> appropriate. I'm sure many others here have much stricter requirements! >> >> Paul >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+paul=kroitor...@gnucash.org> On >> Behalf Of CJN.... ... >> Sent: Friday, April 7, 2023 7:37 PM >> To: Stan Brown <the_stan_br...@fastmail.fm>; GnuCash User List >> <gnucash-user@gnucash.org> >> Subject: Re: [GNC] How to run Year End Procedures for the Tax Year (UK >> end 5 >> April 2023), and start new Data set for the New Tax Year starting 6 April >> 2023 >> >> 8 April 2023 >> >> WOW - Thanks to all of you who have sent me advice of setting up GNU-Cash >> for a new Financial Year. >> >> Read all your messages - all very helpful. >> Looked at the Help-Contents on Closing (after Year End 5 April) Closed >> Accounts. And started new set of data. >> And entered data for the Transactions of the last few days from New Year >> Start 6 April. >> >> And as far as I can see from Trial Balance, and Income/Expenses Reports, >> all >> data is as it should be! >> >> It's been a long Good Friday for this accounting novice. But I think I got >> there. >> Just hope I remember it all for the next Year End :) - Or I might be back >> for more Help! >> >> Chris >> London >> cjn-internatio...@hotmail.com >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: gnucash-user >> [mailto:gnucash-user-bounces+cjn_international=hotmail....@gnucash.org] >> On >> Behalf Of Stan Brown >> Sent: Saturday, April 8, 2023 12:09 AM >> To: GnuCash User List <gnucash-user@gnucash.org> >> Subject: Re: [GNC] How to run Year End Procedures for the Tax Year (UK >> end 5 >> April 2023), and start new Data set for the New Tax Year starting 6 April >> 2023 >> >> >> On 2023-04-07 14:09, Michael or Penny Novack wrote: >> > >> > The point is, if you ever want to look at the books in their state >> > prior to the 2023 close you don't undo anything. Instead you retrieve >> > the back-up and open a copy of that. >> >> That's certainly possible, and I agree it's much better than undoing >> things. >> But there's a very large caveat: >> >> When you open GnuCash, it opens the file you were working on most >> recently. >> So you need to be very sure that you have opened the file you intended to, >> after you have finished whatever you wanted to do with the pre-closing >> file. >> >> My advice: when you're working on the pre-closing file, don't close >> GnuCash. >> Instead, close that file, open your current file, and _then_ close >> GnuCash. >> >> If you're like me (and like several people every month who run into this >> and >> ask about it on the mailing list) you're used to having your current file >> open when you open GnuCash, and you may not notice if some other file >> opens. >> >> That's why I recommend closing the pre-closing file and opening your >> current >> file before you close GC. Sure, if you have to work on your pre-closing >> file >> again, you'll have to open it again, which is an extra step. But at least >> you're never in the position of entering a bunch of transactions and >> _then_ >> discovering that you weren't in the file you meant to be in. >> >> P.S. There's a workaround for this in Windows, and I believe in Linux as >> well. Put the name of your current file on the GnuCash command line (which >> is probably inside a shortcut if you're running Windows), and when GC >> starts >> it will open that file regardless of which file you were working on last. >> (In MacOS, the file on the command line is ignored.) >> >> -- >> Stan Brown >> Tehachapi, CA, USA >> https://BrownMath.com >> _______________________________________________ >> 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. >> > _______________________________________________ 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. 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