Robert, In your original message, you said you "entered the present number of shares at the NAV price at the time of entry into Gnucash." Have you tried changing this transaction to use instead your calculated *basis* for those shares? IOW, enter the total shares, skip the price, and enter the basis as the overall cost.
As an aside, I had a similar situation years ago--long-held mutual find, reinvest dividends. I requested every old statement from the firm (they do have them somewhere, BTW), and entered all the individual reinvestment transactions manually. When I transferred those funds to a different account, I used the lots feature to create the gains transaction. It had something like 30 separate splits, and even if I had had records from the firm, I wouldn't have been able to tell if they matched or not. David P.S. remember to reply-all... On June 23, 2026 5:28:40 PM GMT+05:30, Robert Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: >David — > >Thanks for your reply. The mutual fund was started 35 years ago and capital >gains were automatically reinvested, so there are scores and scores of lots to >account for. Further, the lots prior to 2001 are not reported by the >brokerage (extraordinary but true!). The brokerage reports the capital gain >on the “covered”, ie known lots and none on the lots prior to 2001. Knowing >when I purchased or reinvested the fund, I used the average weekly price to >estimate the basis of the fund prior to 2001. So putting in the individual >lots would be an extraordinary amount of work, not to mention inaccurate. > >As I am able to assign the capital gain, I would think that entering the >mutual fund with the known shares and price on a particular day as >pre-existing shares, and then entering the sales with a separate entry for the >capital gain, Gnucash would assign the capital gain as an realized gain and >not incorporate it into the unrealized gain. I am safe with regard to taxation >as Gnucash did place the capital gain in the Income account so I can >accurately track that. > >Thank you for your suggestions. > >— Robert > >> On Jun 22, 2026, at 2:24 AM, David T. <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Robert, >> >> I'm not certain, but I think your problem lies in the way you entered the >> original asset. I think you needed to value the shares at their basis value, >> not the value on the date you entered them. Using the NAV on the entry date >> misvalues the basis of those shares, and when you enter the gain of the >> subsequent sale, you're crossing things up. >> >> I am assuming you know the basis of the original holdings, since you say you >> manually calculated the gain on the sale. Therefore, you should be able to >> accurately adjust the cost on the original entry of record, which will of >> necessity change the price of those shares. (For the record, if I have to >> change shares and/or value of a transaction, I clear the price column and >> let GnuCash recalculate the price. It saves having to agree with the program >> to reset the price). Once the basis is corrected, then you can see whether >> the gains appear more sane. >> >> David T. >> >> >> On June 21, 2026 10:50:25 PM GMT+05:30, Robert Johnson >> <[email protected]> wrote: >>> RE: Gnucash combines both capital gains (realized) and unrealized gains >>> into Unrealized Loss/Gain on the balance sheet and the Advance Portfolio >>> >>> Have been using Gnucash for the past six months with quite a bit of ease. >>> However, I have a problem that I just can’t solve after following the >>> gnucash documentation regarding investments. >>> >>> I have entered a mutual fund acquired over the past thirty years but >>> following chapter 9.5.1 (Investments) for Entering Preexisting Shares. >>> There are numerous lots both recorded and unrecorded by the brokerage, >>> therefore I entered the present number of shares at the NAV price at the >>> time of entry into Gnucash. Using the formal accounting labels, I debit >>> (Buy) the Asset: Investment:Mutual fund account and credit (Sell) the >>> Equity:opening balance. The very last unlabeled column recapitulates the >>> number of shares entered. So far so good. >>> >>> Following the section 9.7.1.2. Separate the Capital Gain/Loss Transaction >>> from the Sale Transaction with figure 9.21. Selling Shares for Gain Where >>> the Sale and Gain are Recorded in Separate Transactions, in Transaction >>> Journal View, I then redeem a portion of the mutual fund with a capital >>> gain that cannot be calculated from prior lots from thirty years ago as >>> they are not reported by the brokerage firm. I therefore manually calculate >>> the gain from what I know of the early purchases. It is an estimate, but >>> very close. >>> >>> I therefore enter the redemption by debiting(Buy) the personal checking >>> account with the net proceeds of the sale and crediting (Sell) the >>> Investment:Mutual fund account with the number of shares sold at the price >>> sold which exactly calculates the dollar value of the sale which was >>> debited to the checking account. I think so far so good. >>> >>> I then enter another line, and label it Capital Gain. The capital gain >>> amount is then entered as a debit to the Investment:Mutual fund account and >>> credited to the Income:Capital Gains account. >>> >>> I then run the balance sheet and it records the Unrealized Loss as a >>> combination of the capital gain and the true unrealized loss. Herein lies >>> my question: what did I do wrong that gnucash is combining the true capital >>> gain with the true unrealized loss/gain (representing the change on paper >>> of the original preexisting entry of mutual fund value from the daily >>> change). >>> >>> I’m sure this question has been asked by others, but I can’t find it in the >>> archive. Thank you for your thoughts. >>> 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. > _______________________________________________ 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.
