Verified again with author of Finance::Quote module that the problem lies in
Gnucash 5.12 inability to properly call the module from within Gnucash. If I
execute a stock retrieval directly from the CPAN Finance Quote 1.65 directory
via the stockdump.pl script I can pull any stock quote via either my
aphavantage or financeapi api keys.
But any attempt to retrieve from any source from within Gnucash ends with a 501
server error.
I am using Ubuntu 24.04.2 OS and the 5.12 Flatpak version of GnuCash.
Can anyone assist me in getting quote retrieval working again. Any suggestions
for what might have changed since 6/30. Last quote I was able to pull was
Friday 6/27 before the weekend. On Monday 6/30 it was broken and has remained
broken.The computer and networking equipment have all been restarted with no
change in the problem. No other issues with the computer or programs other
than stock retrieval from within Gnucash.
On Thursday, July 3, 2025 at 06:54:36 AM PDT,
[email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:
Send gnucash-user mailing list submissions to
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To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
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or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
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When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of gnucash-user digest..."
Today's Topics:
1. accounting (Brian Martin)
2. Retrieving quotes is broken since 6/30 (Keith Myers)
3. Re: accounting (Geoff)
4. Re: accounting (Geoff Jankowski)
5. Re: When income is not income (David Warren)
6. Re: When income is not income (David Warren)
7. Re: When income is not income ([email protected])
8. Re: Retrieving quotes is broken since 6/30 (David Reiser)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2025 09:13:57 -0600
From: Brian Martin <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: [GNC] accounting
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Hello:
As a former accountant having no luck in making any entries.. For
instance how do I get opening balances entered?
Then making entries.
Brian Martin
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2025 22:30:26 +0000 (UTC)
From: Keith Myers <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: [GNC] Retrieving quotes is broken since 6/30
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
I am unable to retrieve any quotes since 6/30 from any source.
Finance:Quote CPAN module is the latest 1.65 version.? Author of Finance:Quote
module on their user mailing list and development list states the problem is
with GnuCash as the F:Q module works correctly when called by itself outside of
GnuCash.
Using either AlpahVantaga or YH Finance API keys which are current and have
never been rate-limited do not work.? Always some variation of either http or
https not working with server error code 501.
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2025 20:29:15 +1000
From: Geoff <[email protected]>
To: Brian Martin <[email protected]>,
[email protected]
Subject: Re: [GNC] accounting
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Hello Brian
(1) Create a new Account under EQUITY called something like "Opening
Balances"
(2) Enter the opening balance amounts in each of your Asset accounts (eg
bank accounts) & Liability accounts (eg credit cards) and post the
contra entries to your newly created "Opening Balances" account.
https://www.google.com/search?q=gnucash+how+to+enter+opening+balance
Regards
Geoff
=====
On 2/07/2025 1:13 am, Brian Martin wrote:
> Hello:
>
> As a former accountant having no luck in making any entries.. For
> instance how do I get opening balances entered?
>
> Then making entries.
>
> Brian Martin
>
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-user mailing list
> [email protected]
> 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.
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2025 12:36:47 +0200
From: Geoff Jankowski <[email protected]>
To: Brian Martin <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [GNC] accounting
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Hi. Brian and welcome to Gnucash-Users.
It would help if you could tell us what you have managed to achieve so far. If
you have opened a new file, the wizard walls you through the setup of your
account and inserts some standard entries.
The Accounts tab lets you add your own accounts within your structure so for
example,
Assets:Current Assets:Bank:Current Account1 (for you to define)
You will then be Abel to open this account and make an entry for the opening
balance which is normally analysed to
Equity:Opening Balances
I am multi currency so I have several Opening balance entries, one for each
currency but Bnucash is extremely flexible and lets you set the accounts up as
you like.
Let us know if this has helped and if you need more help. Remember there is
plenty of excellent documentation to help you with any issues you come across.
Good luck
Geoff Jankowski
> On 1 Jul 2025, at 17:13, Brian Martin <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Hello:
>
> As a former accountant having no luck in making any entries.. For instance
> how do I get opening balances entered?
>
> Then making entries.
>
> Brian Martin
>
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-user mailing list
> [email protected]
> 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.
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2025 08:30:53 -0400
From: David Warren <[email protected]>
To: "Stan Brown (using GC 4.14)" <[email protected]>
Cc: GnuCash User List <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [GNC] When income is not income
Message-ID:
<cad5z54eaefeqy1o0wpf_z4zbz0d_uempy-vym-n+pv76+o+...@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
On Wed, Jul 2, 2025 at 5:47?PM Stan Brown (using GC 4.14) <
[email protected]> wrote:
> Okay, I can kinda-sorta see the point of Deferred Income, but I have two
> issues, one theoretical and one practical.
>
> Theory: In your latest example, That $1000 put unit the IRA is money I
> own -- not in the future only, but right now. If I want to, I can cash
> it out and take a vacation. It would be foolish financially, because of
> associated taxes and penalties, but it would be possible and legal. If
> you can dispose of something at will, isn't it an asset of yours?
Yes, of course it is an asset of yours.
In what part of my proposed entries do you think I don't count making a
salary deduction and resulting deposit to an IRA as growing your asset?
The specific entry i suggested making for that $1000 deposit to your IRA
was:
*Debit Asset:IRA $1000*
Credit Income:Deferred $1000
The $1000 debit to an asset account (your IRA) increases the balance of
that asset by $1000. So I really don't understand your question.
>
Practice: A decade ago, I reasoned as above, so every contribution to an
> IRA was a debit to Assets:IRA and a credit to Assets:Checking Account,
> Income:Salary, or Income:Employer 401k Match. Since retiring, every
> withdrawal was debit Assets:Checking Account, credit Assets:IRA.
> I quail at the thought of rejiggering a busy ten years of
> transactions, and giving each of them two extra splits. Is this a
> situation where there's really only one right way, or is there some
> wiggle room?
>
No one is suggesting there is a "right way", much less a "sole" right way?
It's your set of books and of course there is always 'wiggle room' (meaning
choices). Many times I have decided to start accounting for something in a
different way than I used to, and I always have the choice of making
entries (say, on 2024-12-31 or 2025-01-01) to start doing it the new way as
of this year, vs. going back and restating dozens or hundreds of historical
entries. And, yes, I have often made the choice to start the new
accounting this year, or from last year, so I can make a few adjustments,
but not dozens. It really depends on what your goals are.
I think what you are now experiencing is probably quite common. People
work for decades and contribute money to tax-deferred accounts. They debit
the tax-deferred asset accounts for the contributions and either *de facto *or
explicitly debit those accounts further from investment gains over
decades. Then they get to a period of life where the government requires
them to withdraw money from those accounts and pay taxes on them, and they
realize, as you did, that you want to credit BOTH your asset account that
receives the transfer of funds from the tax-deferred account AND you want
(to show your accountant, or just to do your own taxes and see your taxable
income) to credit a taxable income account, and you, like many people, see
this as a conundrum.
There is no need to go back and make [30] years of adjustments. BUT you
could create an Equity:Deferred Taxable Income on IRA account and credit it
with the total amount of taxable income you will eventually have on that
IRA. (So if you NEVER made non-tax-deductible contributions to that IRA,
and ONLY made pre-tax contributions from salary, then your tax basis in the
IRA is zero, and the full amount of your IRA needs to equal that
Equity:Deferred Taxable Income account). So if your tax basis is 0 and the
IRA balance is $250,000, then I am proposing you credit a new
Equity:Deferred Taxable Income account for $250,000.
So what is the offsetting debit entry?
That will depend on what entries you have used as offsetting credits as the
value of your IRA (or 401k) has grown. What you will want to do is
determine what past aggregate credits you made as the IRA grew. Of course,
if you made transfers from your checking account, and if those increased
your tax basis in the IRA, then that did NOT create deferred taxable
income, so you don't need to offset those. But whatever accounts (you
mentioned Income:salary, which was sort-of correct but means back then your
income statement didn't distinguish between taxable salary and non-taxable
salary! and you mentioned employer-match) So debit those accounts to
offset the new credit entry. And all should work.
(there is some further complexity if you indeed have tax basis, as my
understanding [i'm not an accountant!] is that withdrawals from IRAs with
tax basis are part taxable, part non-taxable based on the *pro rata *ratio
of your tax basis to your aggregate IRA account balance pre withdrawal.)
>
> > Now assume your IRA goes up in value over some period. The $1100 you
> > contributed is now worth $1900. I book:
> > Debit Asset:IRA $800
> > Credit Income:Deferred $800
> >
> > Hopefully you see where we are heading!!
> >
> > Now when it's time to make withdrawals (required or otherwise), here's
> how
> > we record a $300 withdrawal from the IRA:
> >
> > Debit Asset:Checking account $300
> > Credit Asset:IRA $300
> > Debit Income:Deferred $300
> > Credit Income:Taxable $300
> >
> > voila! Everything balances. We'd have $1600 remaining in the IRA with a
> > $100 tax basis (given that was the original non-deductible contribution)
> > and the Income:Deferred account balance would be exactly $1500, or
> > represent the amount we still haven't paid taxes on as it has not yet
> > become official IRS taxable income.
> >
> > And if you don't want that deferred income EVER showing up on any income
> > statement, you make it an Equity:Deferred IRA Income account! But
> > everything else works the same...
>
> Stan Brown
> Tehachapi, CA, USA
> https://BrownMath.com
>
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2025 08:48:13 -0400
From: David Warren <[email protected]>
To: "Stan Brown (using GC 4.14)" <[email protected]>
Cc: GnuCash User List <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [GNC] When income is not income
Message-ID:
<CAD5Z54e7rxDap-N371ND1MHRyj2Z1=EULnePPENLi+jEzc=a...@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
On Thu, Jul 3, 2025 at 8:30?AM David Warren <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 2, 2025 at 5:47?PM Stan Brown (using GC 4.14) <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Okay, I can kinda-sorta see the point of Deferred Income, but I have two
>> issues, one theoretical and one practical.
>>
>> Theory: In your latest example, That $1000 put unit the IRA is money I
>> own -- not in the future only, but right now. If I want to, I can cash
>> it out and take a vacation. It would be foolish financially, because of
>> associated taxes and penalties, but it would be possible and legal. If
>> you can dispose of something at will, isn't it an asset of yours?
>
>
> Yes, of course it is an asset of yours.
> In what part of my proposed entries do you think I don't count making a
> salary deduction and resulting deposit to an IRA as growing your asset?
> The specific entry i suggested making for that $1000 deposit to your IRA
> was:
>
> *Debit Asset:IRA $1000*
> Credit Income:Deferred $1000
>
> The $1000 debit to an asset account (your IRA) increases the balance of
> that asset by $1000. So I really don't understand your question.
>
>>
>
> Practice: A decade ago, I reasoned as above, so every contribution to an
>> IRA was a debit to Assets:IRA and a credit to Assets:Checking Account,
>> Income:Salary, or Income:Employer 401k Match. Since retiring, every
>> withdrawal was debit Assets:Checking Account, credit Assets:IRA.
>> I quail at the thought of rejiggering a busy ten years of
>> transactions, and giving each of them two extra splits. Is this a
>> situation where there's really only one right way, or is there some
>> wiggle room?
>>
>
> No one is suggesting there is a "right way", much less a "sole" right
> way? It's your set of books and of course there is always 'wiggle room'
> (meaning choices). Many times I have decided to start accounting for
> something in a different way than I used to, and I always have the choice
> of making entries (say, on 2024-12-31 or 2025-01-01) to start doing it the
> new way as of this year, vs. going back and restating dozens or hundreds of
> historical entries. And, yes, I have often made the choice to start the
> new accounting this year, or from last year, so I can make a few
> adjustments, but not dozens. It really depends on what your goals are.
>
> I think what you are now experiencing is probably quite common. People
> work for decades and contribute money to tax-deferred accounts. They debit
> the tax-deferred asset accounts for the contributions and either *de
> facto *or explicitly debit those accounts further from investment gains
> over decades. Then they get to a period of life where the government
> requires them to withdraw money from those accounts and pay taxes on them,
> and they realize, as you did, that you want to credit BOTH your asset
> account that receives the transfer of funds from the tax-deferred account
> AND you want (to show your accountant, or just to do your own taxes and see
> your taxable income) to credit a taxable income account, and you, like many
> people, see this as a conundrum.
>
> There is no need to go back and make [30] years of adjustments. BUT you
> could create an Equity:Deferred Taxable Income on IRA account and credit it
> with the total amount of taxable income you will eventually have on that
> IRA. (So if you NEVER made non-tax-deductible contributions to that IRA,
> and ONLY made pre-tax contributions from salary, then your tax basis in the
> IRA is zero, and the full amount of your IRA needs to equal that
> Equity:Deferred Taxable Income account). So if your tax basis is 0 and the
> IRA balance is $250,000, then I am proposing you credit a new
> Equity:Deferred Taxable Income account for $250,000.
>
> So what is the offsetting debit entry?
> That will depend on what entries you have used as offsetting credits as
> the value of your IRA (or 401k) has grown. What you will want to do is
> determine what past aggregate credits you made as the IRA grew. Of course,
> if you made transfers from your checking account, and if those increased
> your tax basis in the IRA, then that did NOT create deferred taxable
> income, so you don't need to offset those. But whatever accounts (you
> mentioned Income:salary, which was sort-of correct but means back then your
> income statement didn't distinguish between taxable salary and non-taxable
> salary! and you mentioned employer-match) So debit those accounts to
> offset the new credit entry. And all should work.
>
> (there is some further complexity if you indeed have tax basis, as my
> understanding [i'm not an accountant!] is that withdrawals from IRAs with
> tax basis are part taxable, part non-taxable based on the *pro rata *ratio
> of your tax basis to your aggregate IRA account balance pre withdrawal.)
>
>
And, I should add, if you have owned a retirement account for a very long
time, it would be common to have the biggest historical growth in the asset
account NOT come from salary or other transfers TO the account, but,
rather, from investment gains. So the next question you'll have to ask is
how have you been accounting for those investment gains in your set of
books? If you made manual entries to increase the value of your retirement
accounts, when you debited the retirement account to grow it, what did you
credit? And if you, instead, used your accounting system's "Stock"
[investment] shares and prices, you are going to have to re-think when/how
to make manual debit and credit entries to achieve the tax based accounting
for income and deferred income that you now desire.
(In my personal system, I elected, when I moved to gnucash, to NOT track
investment gains via the gnucash "Stock" / prices system. Rather, at each
quarter's end, I simply make a manual entry to my retirement accounts where
I (usually, as I usually have investment gains, but there are, of course,
exceptions, when the investment accounts fall in value, so the following
entries are reversed):
Debit Asset:Retirement-Account $100
..........Credit Income:Deferred-Retirement $100
Debit Income:Eventual-Taxes-on-Deferred-Accounts $35
..........Credit Liability:Deferred-Taxes-on-Retirement Accounts $35
I have spoken to many accountants about what they do and they agree that it
is rare to make all 4 entries. They would also typically use Equity rather
than Income accounts for the two middle entries. And I, too, need to be
careful, as the middle two entries aren't taxable events. I nevertheless
like to see my change of net worth through my virtual income statement.
And the Liability is accurate, given I will eventually have to pay taxes
(I'm using 35% for federal+state) on all growth in this account. Then when
I actually PAY the taxes, my net worth does NOT decline. I simply debit
the liability account and credit the account I use to pay the taxes. FYI
------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Thu, 03 Jul 2025 08:59:33 -0400
From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
To: Michael or Penny Novack <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [GNC] When income is not income
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Michael,
I don't dispute anything of what you say, as you are far more knowledgeable on
these subjects than I.
I did, however, have something of a philosophical thought regarding the
annuity.
You note that the value of the asset "evaporates" upon death. You also note
that the value of the asset does not change with payments to the annuitant.
The philosophical question that comes to me is this: if the value of this asset
doesn't change with payments, and disappears upon death, does this asset
actually have any real value now?
I think that calling it a conditional asset is misleading. The money for that
went out, and won't be recovered. Under these conditions, the purchase of the
annuity was an expense (like buying food), and it would be clearer for any
executors of the estate to manage.
Beyond the academic question of value for investment (am I getting more back
than I paid in?), I don't see a real benefit to calling the annuity an asset.
?David T. ?
On Jul 2, 2025, 10:51?PM, at 10:51?PM, Michael or Penny Novack via gnucash-user
<[email protected]> wrote:
>Very separate questions.
>
>What you paid for the annuity is its basis as an asset. It is, however,
>
>a "conditional asset". The condition in this case your being alive.
>After your death, whoever is closing down your books, would be entering
>
>a "journal transaction" to reflect its "evaporation" << debit equity,
>credit annuity >>
>
>When you receive income from this annuity, simply debit cash, credit
>income << the value/basis of the annuity is not decreased >>
>
>Distributions from an IRA, 401k, etc. are very different. And whether
>that's taxable income depends on type of IRA, where you are in the
>history of distributions, etc. I think what has you confused is that
>the
>distribution is BOTH cash received, income, and reduction of the asset.
>
>In order to discuss handling THAT part of it we need to ask how are you
>
>carrying the IRA (as an asset) and how did it get there. BUT --- to
>start you off thinking in the right direction, the transaction might
>have FOUR accounts, debits to cash and equity, credits to income and
>IRA. << So it WAS an accounting question too >>
>
>Michael D Novack
>
>
>On 7/1/2025 5:41 PM, Stan Brown (using GC 4.14) wrote:
>> Disclosure:: (A) is an accounting question, not a GC question. I hope
>> some folks will find the question interesting enough to comment on
>> anyway. (B) is, I think, a GC question.
>>
>> (A) Annuity
>>
>> Last year I bought an annuity for a single payment of $P. I will
>receive
>> a fixed $M each month until I die. Regardless of when that happens,
>> there is no payout to any beneficiaries.
>>
>> I set this up as Assets:Investments:Annuity with an initial value of
>$P,
>> transferred directly from my traditional IRA.
>> debit $P: Assets:Investments:Annuity
>> credit $P: Assets:Investments:Traditional_IRA
>> When I received the first payment last month, I did this:
>> debit $M: Assets:Checking Account
>> credit $M: Assets:Investments:Annuity
>> But now I'm having second thoughts.
>>
>> This annuity isn't an investment like a mutual fund. While it has a
>> value, I can't touch that value ahead of the monthly schedule, and my
>> heirs (or creditors) get nothing. So I'm not sure that it makes any
>> sense to have it as an asset. Maybe I should have done this for the
>purchase
>> debit $P: Expense:Annuity_purchase
>> credit $P: Assets:Investments:Traditional_IRA
>> and this for each payment
>> debit $M: Assets:Checking Account
>> credit $M: Income:Annuity_Payout
>> That would reduce my total assets and my net worth by $P, but I'm
>> getting uneasy about having included the annuity in Assets in the
>first
>> place.
>>
>> Comments?
>>
>> At least this has the virtue of including the annuity income in my
>> Income Statement. But that leads to another issue ...
>>
>> (B) IRA
>>
>> Right now withdrawals from my IRA are simple transfers:
>> debit $X: Assets:Checking Account
>> credit $X: Assets:Traditional_IRA (same amount)
>> While I think that's the right thing from an accounting standpoint,
>it
>> has a drawback: the Income Statement doesn't show those withdrawals
>as
>> part of my income, even though the tax man treats them as income and
>> they should be in any statement I provide when applying for credit.
>>
>> Is there a way to eat my cake and have it? Maybe I could create an
>> account Income:IRA_Withdrawals and a contra account
>> Expense:IRA_Withdrawals_Contra. When making a withdrawal of $X I
>would
>> record the transaction in the previous paragraph and also this:
>> credit $X: Income:IRA_Withdrawals
>> debit $X: Expense:IRA_Withdrawals_Contra
>> I could exclude the contra account from the income statement to
>produce
>> an Income Statement containing all my income that's subject to tax.
>But
>> this seems kind of rigmarolish, and I'm wondering whether there's a
>> better way.
>>
>
>--
>There is no possibility of social justice on a dead planet except the
>equality of the grave.
>
>_______________________________________________
>gnucash-user mailing list
>[email protected]
>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.
------------------------------
Message: 8
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2025 09:51:49 -0400
From: David Reiser <[email protected]>
To: Keith Myers <[email protected]>
Cc: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [GNC] Retrieving quotes is broken since 6/30
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Retrieving quotes via Finance::Quote inside Gnucash has worked for me on 7/1
and 7/2 for Alphavantage (currencies) and Yahoo JSON (stocks).
--
Dave Reiser
[email protected]
> On Jul 2, 2025, at 18:30, Keith Myers <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I am unable to retrieve any quotes since 6/30 from any source.
> Finance:Quote CPAN module is the latest 1.65 version. Author of
> Finance:Quote module on their user mailing list and development list states
> the problem is with GnuCash as the F:Q module works correctly when called by
> itself outside of GnuCash.
> Using either AlpahVantaga or YH Finance API keys which are current and have
> never been rate-limited do not work. Always some variation of either http or
> https not working with server error code 501.
------------------------------
Subject: Digest Footer
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End of gnucash-user Digest, Vol 268, Issue 8
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