Re: How to create an asset with a reduced value compared to my regular currency (dollars)

[David Carlson]

Adrian,

While I am not an accountant, historically I have used a method similar to
that suggested by Adrien.  However, I am intrigued by the answer provided
by Michael Novack, as it avoids the problem of overstating potentially
taxable income without needing to have a group of accounts to segregate
before running your tax reports at the end of the year.

Thus I am considering switching to a method modeled on his suggestion.

David C

On Thu, Dec 7, 2017 at 4:19 PM, Adrien Monteleone <
adrien.montele...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I have to concur on the $70 gift idea.
>
> You paid $430 for a stored value card that has $500 on it.
>
> This is no different than if you handed a bank teller $430 in small bills
> and they returned to you 5 one hundred dollar bills. (assuming the bank is
> just fine with that)
>
> When you spend $100 from this card you aren’t really spending $86. You’re
> spending $100.
>
> After you’ve spent $430, the next $70 on the card is a gift to you from
> whomever sold you the card.
>
> But you can’t truly determine which $70 is gift and which isn’t.
>
> The easiest and likely most correct transaction is this:
>
> Dr. Assets:Cash $430
> Dr. Income:Gift Received $70
> Cr. Assets:Prepaid Card $500
>
> When you use the card, all transactions are just normal as if you’d paid
> $500 for it.
>
> There is no discount. There is no rebate. You received a ‘gift’ of $70 in
> the form of extra stored value on the card.
>
> Had you paid nothing and received a card with a $70 value, the transaction
> would be:
>
> Dr. Income:Gift Received $70
> Cr. Assets:Prepaid Card $70
>
> Note, the difference is NOT the $70. The difference is what you paid for
> the extra value, in this case $430.
>
> Had you paid $430 for one card and the merchant gave you a separate card
> with $70 value on it (that’s two cards totaling $500) then your entries
> would be this:
>
> Dr. Assets:Cash $430
> Cr. Assets:Prepaid Card $430
>
> Dr. Income:Gift Received $70
> Cr. Assets:Prepaid Card $70
>
> There’s no fundamental difference in these two separate transactions than
> the combined transaction above. They record the same net amounts in the
> same places. The fact that all of this takes place on one card instead of
> two, or that the gift is from a merchant instead of a family member or
> friend does not change the nature of the transaction.
>
> You can record anything you want the way you want if this is just for you
> to keep track of, but the goal should always be to use transactions to show
> an accurate picture of what happened. What happened is NOT that you saved
> money on future purchases. What happened is you received a gift of $70 in
> the form of a stored value card.
>
> But by all means, ask a CPA if it’s that important to you.
>
> Regards,
> Adrien
>
> > On Dec 7, 2017, at 3:46 PM, nvsoar  wrote:
> >
> > On 12/06/17 12:44, adrian wrote:
> >> Tommy Trussell wrote
>  Adrian:
>  In the case at hand I spent $430 on the gift card and when I buy
>  something
>  that costs $100, I'm really only spending $86.  That's what makes
> sense
>  to
>  me for how this ought to be counted.   Since I don't know the
> category of
>  the expense in advance, I can't just put in a $70 offset unless I put
> it
>  as
>  "misc", in which case I lose track of some information about how I
>  allocated
>  my money.
> 
> >>> I went back to your original question (remember that this is NOT a
> forum
> >>> --
> >>> it's an email list that you're viewing through Nabble)
> >> Yeah, despite that I have been unable to actually subscribe to the list.
> >> But your point was you wanted more context, I suppose.
> >>
> >>
>  I bought a $500 gift card for $430 this week.  I would like to add
> this to
>  gnucash as some kind of asset so that as I spend it, the correctly
> scaled
>  amount gets transferred to the expense account I use.  In other
> words, if
>  I
>  spend $100 from this account it's really only $86.
> 
>  I tried to do this by creating a security fund and then using the
> price
>  editor to set the price to 0.86.  But when I insert a transaction from
>  the
>  new account to an expense account, it doesn't apply the 0.86 factor.
>  What
>  is the right way to do what I want to do?
> >>>
> >>> I think you have demonstrated the difficulty with what you're trying to
> >>> do-- you're trying to make a rebate card a different KIND of currency,
> >>> which in one sense, it is. HOWEVER every time you make a purchase from
> >>> that
> >>> card it will require a currency exchange, which adds a level of
> complexity
> >>> and may not produce the result you want.
> >>>
> >>> I'm sure you could make it work, but in the end, it's a lot easier to
> just
> >>> offset the $70 against the expenses. TECHNICALLY you don't get benefit
> of
> >>> the full amount you spent on the card until you have completely
> depleted
> >>> the value of the card, 

Re: GnuCash: Import CSV File Format

[David Carlson]

I don't think that there is a specification beyond the generic CSV format,
which is grouping chunks of text separated by commas into groups separated
by a carriage return.  Check with your favorite spreadsheet program for
help.

When you want to import a file into GnuCash you then assign 'columns' to
data during the import process.  You can assign a 'column' to each of the
commonly used used fields in a transaction record. The process does not
consider which account is the 'home' account, you just start in that
account when you import, if I recall

FYI it is very important to be consistent with the date format when
assigning a column to dates, as GnuCash is very fussy about M-D-Y vs
D-M-Y.

David C

On Thu, Dec 7, 2017 at 3:58 PM, Charles Sliger  wrote:

> Where can I find the file specification for creating a csv file to
> import transactions?
> --
> -chaz
> Charles Sliger
> "No matter where you go... There you are... Buckaroo Banzai"
>
>
>
>
>
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Re: GnuCash: Import CSV File Format

[Nelson Handcock]

The online help/tutorials has all the information!




Thanks & Regards,

Nelson Handcock
0409 149919

http://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonhandcockaustralia

On Fri, Dec 8, 2017 at 7:58 AM, Charles Sliger  wrote:

> Where can I find the file specification for creating a csv file to
> import transactions?
> --
> -chaz
> Charles Sliger
> "No matter where you go... There you are... Buckaroo Banzai"
>
>
>
>
>
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Re: How to create an asset with a reduced value compared to my regular currency (dollars)

[Adrien Monteleone]

I have to concur on the $70 gift idea.

You paid $430 for a stored value card that has $500 on it.

This is no different than if you handed a bank teller $430 in small bills and 
they returned to you 5 one hundred dollar bills. (assuming the bank is just 
fine with that)

When you spend $100 from this card you aren’t really spending $86. You’re 
spending $100.

After you’ve spent $430, the next $70 on the card is a gift to you from 
whomever sold you the card.

But you can’t truly determine which $70 is gift and which isn’t.

The easiest and likely most correct transaction is this:

Dr. Assets:Cash $430
Dr. Income:Gift Received $70
Cr. Assets:Prepaid Card $500

When you use the card, all transactions are just normal as if you’d paid $500 
for it.

There is no discount. There is no rebate. You received a ‘gift’ of $70 in the 
form of extra stored value on the card.

Had you paid nothing and received a card with a $70 value, the transaction 
would be:

Dr. Income:Gift Received $70
Cr. Assets:Prepaid Card $70

Note, the difference is NOT the $70. The difference is what you paid for the 
extra value, in this case $430.

Had you paid $430 for one card and the merchant gave you a separate card with 
$70 value on it (that’s two cards totaling $500) then your entries would be 
this:

Dr. Assets:Cash $430
Cr. Assets:Prepaid Card $430

Dr. Income:Gift Received $70
Cr. Assets:Prepaid Card $70

There’s no fundamental difference in these two separate transactions than the 
combined transaction above. They record the same net amounts in the same 
places. The fact that all of this takes place on one card instead of two, or 
that the gift is from a merchant instead of a family member or friend does not 
change the nature of the transaction.

You can record anything you want the way you want if this is just for you to 
keep track of, but the goal should always be to use transactions to show an 
accurate picture of what happened. What happened is NOT that you saved money on 
future purchases. What happened is you received a gift of $70 in the form of a 
stored value card.

But by all means, ask a CPA if it’s that important to you.

Regards,
Adrien

> On Dec 7, 2017, at 3:46 PM, nvsoar  wrote:
> 
> On 12/06/17 12:44, adrian wrote:
>> Tommy Trussell wrote
 Adrian:
 In the case at hand I spent $430 on the gift card and when I buy
 something
 that costs $100, I'm really only spending $86.  That's what makes sense
 to
 me for how this ought to be counted.   Since I don't know the category of
 the expense in advance, I can't just put in a $70 offset unless I put it
 as
 "misc", in which case I lose track of some information about how I
 allocated
 my money.
 
>>> I went back to your original question (remember that this is NOT a forum
>>> --
>>> it's an email list that you're viewing through Nabble)
>> Yeah, despite that I have been unable to actually subscribe to the list.
>> But your point was you wanted more context, I suppose.
>> 
>> 
 I bought a $500 gift card for $430 this week.  I would like to add this to
 gnucash as some kind of asset so that as I spend it, the correctly scaled
 amount gets transferred to the expense account I use.  In other words, if
 I
 spend $100 from this account it's really only $86.
 
 I tried to do this by creating a security fund and then using the price
 editor to set the price to 0.86.  But when I insert a transaction from
 the
 new account to an expense account, it doesn't apply the 0.86 factor.
 What
 is the right way to do what I want to do?
>>> 
>>> I think you have demonstrated the difficulty with what you're trying to
>>> do-- you're trying to make a rebate card a different KIND of currency,
>>> which in one sense, it is. HOWEVER every time you make a purchase from
>>> that
>>> card it will require a currency exchange, which adds a level of complexity
>>> and may not produce the result you want.
>>> 
>>> I'm sure you could make it work, but in the end, it's a lot easier to just
>>> offset the $70 against the expenses. TECHNICALLY you don't get benefit of
>>> the full amount you spent on the card until you have completely depleted
>>> the value of the card, but that would be a PITA (sorry for the acronym --
>>> I
>>> mean "difficult").
>>> 
>>> I think the real answer is to go back and think about what it is you want
>>> to achieve.
>> I'm not sure what exactly is unclear.  I am thinking of the acquisition of
>> this card not as a purchase, but as a shift of assets from one form to
>> another.  So instead of $430 in the bank I now have a different asset,
>> namely $500 on the card.   Yes, it's true, I don't benefit until I spend the
>> money.  But the same is true of money in the bank.
>> 
>> But it's not really $500 on the card because I only spent $430 on it.  It is
>> exactly like a currency exchange, though it's not obvious to me why this
>> means my goal is a very 

GnuCash: Import CSV File Format

[Charles Sliger]

Where can I find the file specification for creating a csv file to
import transactions?
-- 
-chaz
Charles Sliger
"No matter where you go... There you are... Buckaroo Banzai"





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Re: How to create an asset with a reduced value compared to my regular currency (dollars)

[nvsoar]

On 12/06/17 12:44, adrian wrote:

Tommy Trussell wrote

Adrian:
In the case at hand I spent $430 on the gift card and when I buy
something
that costs $100, I'm really only spending $86.  That's what makes sense
to
me for how this ought to be counted.   Since I don't know the category of
the expense in advance, I can't just put in a $70 offset unless I put it
as
"misc", in which case I lose track of some information about how I
allocated
my money.


I went back to your original question (remember that this is NOT a forum
--
it's an email list that you're viewing through Nabble)

Yeah, despite that I have been unable to actually subscribe to the list.
But your point was you wanted more context, I suppose.



I bought a $500 gift card for $430 this week.  I would like to add this to
gnucash as some kind of asset so that as I spend it, the correctly scaled
amount gets transferred to the expense account I use.  In other words, if
I
spend $100 from this account it's really only $86.

I tried to do this by creating a security fund and then using the price
editor to set the price to 0.86.  But when I insert a transaction from
the
new account to an expense account, it doesn't apply the 0.86 factor.
What
is the right way to do what I want to do?


I think you have demonstrated the difficulty with what you're trying to
do-- you're trying to make a rebate card a different KIND of currency,
which in one sense, it is. HOWEVER every time you make a purchase from
that
card it will require a currency exchange, which adds a level of complexity
and may not produce the result you want.

I'm sure you could make it work, but in the end, it's a lot easier to just
offset the $70 against the expenses. TECHNICALLY you don't get benefit of
the full amount you spent on the card until you have completely depleted
the value of the card, but that would be a PITA (sorry for the acronym --
I
mean "difficult").

I think the real answer is to go back and think about what it is you want
to achieve.

I'm not sure what exactly is unclear.  I am thinking of the acquisition of
this card not as a purchase, but as a shift of assets from one form to
another.  So instead of $430 in the bank I now have a different asset,
namely $500 on the card.   Yes, it's true, I don't benefit until I spend the
money.  But the same is true of money in the bank.

But it's not really $500 on the card because I only spent $430 on it.  It is
exactly like a currency exchange, though it's not obvious to me why this
means my goal is a very complex one.   It seems pretty simple to have an
exchange rate and have the card denominated in some currency, say the Gifta,
that is equal to .86 dollars.  When I buy something using the card I can go
to the card's account and list the expenses in Giftas and they will be
automatically translated by the 0.86 factor.   (I assume that if I made an
account denominated in, say GBP, that I would be able to get that to
translate to the USD that I use for my regular accounts; after all, this is
something that is important to many people.)

Now actually I realized that the solution I was fiddling with can be made to
work. As I mentioned before, I made an account and created a security and
tried to set its price using the price editor.  For some reason the Price
Editor doesn't seem to do anything, but there is a column labeled "Price" in
the account I made, and if I set this to 0.86 (which I have to do manually
for every transaction, it seems) then things work as I was hoping.  (And I
notice that prices I enter in the ledger appear in the price editor even
though the reverse doesn't seem to be the case.)   It would be even nicer if
I could set the price once and have that same price stay in effect until I
change it, rather than having to enter it again for each transaction with
the default price being "1".

Why do I care?  It's just so that my accounting correctly tracks my
expenditures in different categories.   I don't need to use accounting
software to do price comparisons, but if I want to know how much I spent on
Widgets this year---and I buy some using the card---the number will be
inflated if I don't account for the discount.





--
Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html

H.  Seems to me that you received a $70.00 gift along with the card.
nvsoar
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Re: gnucash file could not be found

[Mike Turner]

Thanks to everyone. 

As advised, the trick is to close the error message but stay within the open 
GnuCash application and then navigate to the file you wish to open. I was 
closing the app between tries.

Brilliant… well done everyone
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Re: gnucash file could not be found

[Maf. King]

Hi Mike,

Think you've hit a weird interaction of the Gnucash Program (well, some of 
it's underlying modules) and MacOS.

However you invoke Gnucash, it will *always* try to load the most recently 
used data file on a Mac.  Once you have cleared the "cant Find file" message, 
use the Gnucash File->Open and navigate to your network store and hence the GC 
data file you need.

HTH,
Maf.



On Thursday, 7 December 2017 15:34:00 GMT Mike_Turner wrote:
> My working gnucash file is kept on a networked HD. I was visiting my
> accountant and so copied the folder to my laptop. I opened the file to check
> I could see it. I later deleted the folder, no changes were made, but now
> when I try and open gnucash it is looking for the file on the laptop NOT
> the file on the HD. All the files are still there in their original format
> but the gnucash app is looking in the wrong place. Is there a way to
> redirect it to the correct location?
> 
> I have tried opening the file from within gnucash and using the desktop
> file/open... facility but it always comes up with a message saying the
> laptop file could not be found.
> 
> I haven't tried copying the files to the laptop again as I don't want to
> create any further problems.
> 
> Working on a Mac OS10.13.1, Gnucash 2.6.18.
> 
> Any help gratefully accepted. Currently all accounts are inaccessible.
> 
> Mike
> 


-- 
Maf. King
PGP Key fingerprint = 8D68 A91F 733B 2C1F 43B7  2B7C E591 E8E1 0DE7 C542



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Re: gnucash file could not be found

[David T. via gnucash-user]

Mike,

GnuCash automatically attempts to open the last file you used, even if that 
file is no longer where GnuCash thinks it is. Moreover, on Macs, GnuCash tries 
to open that last file *even if you double click on another GnuCash file from 
Finder.* The workaround is that you use File-> Open to access the correct file, 
and GnuCash will go there in the future.

However, you say you’ve tried File->Open without success, so, I am at a loss. 
Is there a problem with the network drive? Or perhaps someone else has a 
suggestion?

David


> On Dec 7, 2017, at 8:34 PM, Mike_Turner  wrote:
> 
> My working gnucash file is kept on a networked HD. I was visiting my
> accountant and so copied the folder to my laptop. I opened the file to check
> I could see it. I later deleted the folder, no changes were made, but now
> when I try and open gnucash it is looking for the file on the laptop NOT the
> file on the HD. All the files are still there in their original format but
> the gnucash app is looking in the wrong place. Is there a way to redirect it
> to the correct location?
> 
> I have tried opening the file from within gnucash and using the desktop
> file/open... facility but it always comes up with a message saying the
> laptop file could not be found.
> 
> I haven't tried copying the files to the laptop again as I don't want to
> create any further problems.
> 
> Working on a Mac OS10.13.1, Gnucash 2.6.18.
> 
> Any help gratefully accepted. Currently all accounts are inaccessible.
> 
> Mike
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> --
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gnucash file could not be found

[Mike_Turner]

My working gnucash file is kept on a networked HD. I was visiting my
accountant and so copied the folder to my laptop. I opened the file to check
I could see it. I later deleted the folder, no changes were made, but now
when I try and open gnucash it is looking for the file on the laptop NOT the
file on the HD. All the files are still there in their original format but
the gnucash app is looking in the wrong place. Is there a way to redirect it
to the correct location?

I have tried opening the file from within gnucash and using the desktop
file/open... facility but it always comes up with a message saying the
laptop file could not be found.

I haven't tried copying the files to the laptop again as I don't want to
create any further problems.

Working on a Mac OS10.13.1, Gnucash 2.6.18.

Any help gratefully accepted. Currently all accounts are inaccessible.

Mike


 



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