First, your use case might be out of scope for GnuCash.
But you might be able to accomplish #3 with a Transaction Report.
Since you want a delta though, you will likely have to run two such
reports with different ending dates (either independently or using the
Multi-Column report) and then export to a spreadsheet to get your
variance column.
Another option would be to use the Balance Sheet (multi-column) report.
Set your period to One Year, set the beginning date as Last Quarter,
closing date as Current Quarter and select only the relevant Accounts.
Then export to a spreadsheet for adding your variance column.
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There is no virtual retained earnings account. (according to my
understanding)
If you proceed as normal, and do not close the books, GnuCash calculates
what this account balance would be and shows it on the Balance Sheet
report. (perhaps others)
If you close the books, you get a real Retained Earnings account.
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I don't think you *need* to close books to achieve any of your three
objectives.
Regards,
Adrien
On 10/22/23 12:36 PM, Quinn Wood wrote:
I need to do three things after a given financial reporting period:
* produce a report that communicates revenues and expenses over the period
* produce a report that communicates the final balances at the end of the
period
* produce a report that communicates any changes in shareholder equity that
occurred over the period
It looks like I can accomplish the first two things with the built-in
Income Statement and Balance Sheet reports without doing any kind of
closing process (built-in or manual) so that works fine. For the third
objective, I believe the Equity Statement report will pick up on net income
(or loss) as well as capital investments even if I refrain from closing the
books, so that works fine too. To finish up the third objective, how would
I enter a dividend into the GnuCash so it shows up on the report? If I was
using an explicit account, I would probably choose to debit Retained
Earnings equity account and credit a Dividends Payable liability account to
declare a dividend. In this case where I'm sticking with the virtual
Retained Earnings (or Losses) account, I believe I won't be able to do that.
Thanks for the explanation about the virtual accounts, good stuff to know.
Let me know if I'm missing something with this last bit.
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