Re: Year end issues

[Liz]

On Tue, 16 Jan 2018 07:08:23 +0100
Jeff Abrahamson  wrote:

> In France, even for small clubs like ours, we face a regulatory
> requirement that the books be immutable after end of year.  This makes
> sense in that if the tax authorities (even though we don't have to
> file taxes) ask us a question and then find out that our books for
> some past year have changed, they might reasonably be suspicious of
> our rigor and tax-exempt-worthiness.
> 
> Is there a way in gnucash to make a set of transactions or a period of
> time immutable?  For us, that's really the only reason we still have
> for "closing books" -- avoiding this sort of mistake where something
> gets accidentally entered or changed from a past year.
> 
> Jeff Abrahamson


This is a frequently asked question. There is no way to make any
electronic file immutable. 
I can change a file, and change its 'access time' on the disk, and if I
know that, so do forensic accountants.

Practical things to do are to make a read-only copy, for example on a
CD-R, and lodge that with your accountant, or equivalent (a small club
would not have an accountant, but should have some place where
read-only media can be stored for the required number of years).

We know that what the tax authorities ask is actually impossible, and
you get clever politicians like the Australian Prime Minister,
declaring that the law of the land overrides the laws of mathematics.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-laws-of-australia-will-trump-the-laws-of-mathematics-turnbull/

Liz
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Re: Year end issues

[Jeff Abrahamson]

In France, even for small clubs like ours, we face a regulatory
requirement that the books be immutable after end of year.  This makes
sense in that if the tax authorities (even though we don't have to file
taxes) ask us a question and then find out that our books for some past
year have changed, they might reasonably be suspicious of our rigor and
tax-exempt-worthiness.

Is there a way in gnucash to make a set of transactions or a period of
time immutable?  For us, that's really the only reason we still have for
"closing books" -- avoiding this sort of mistake where something gets
accidentally entered or changed from a past year.

Jeff Abrahamson
+33 6 24 40 01 57
+44 7920 594 255

http://p27.eu/jeff/


On 15/01/18 22:23, Ronal B Morse wrote:
> This is what I do, but I'm only dealing with household and personal
> accounts and smallish investment portfolios. Because the statement
> closing dates for the investment and personal bank and credit accounts
> don't correspond exactly with the beginning date of the new book,
> there's always some monkey motion at the first of the year to "fix"
> opening balances or manually add transactions that were in float.
>
> Not much work, actually, and this keeps the year's data file (and
> backups) down to a reasonable size.  Access to past data is as easy as
> opening the appropriate file (one must remember to ensure you're
> working on the correct data at the start of the next session as the
> autobot opens the last data file you uses, not the newest by date).
>
> I understand that people using GnuCash for business purposes may be
> facing different issues and restrictions.
>
> RBM.
>
>
> On 01/15/2018 01:54 PM, Mike or Penny Novack wrote:
>> Let's discuss this (and possible options)
>>
>> First, you need to understand what "close the books" does do and what
>> is does not do. It creates a transaction (or transactions) to zero
>> out income and expense accounts to equity. It does NOT remove
>> transactions and so will not make your file smaller.
>>
>> It sounds like what you want is something more like to was in the old
>> days of books kept in BOOKS, pen and ink on paper.  What was common
>> at the end of each accounting period was to close the old books and
>> open new ones. The old volumes were put safely by in case they needed
>> to be referenced later.
>>
>> One of the advantages of software like gnucash is that it can create
>> the usual reports without actually closing the books. Easy to
>> reference old transactions (previous accounting periods) without
>> having to "bring them back" as they would have done in the old days
>> when physical books. But suppose you don't want this, you don't want
>> to be seeing all those accounts that have become obsolete cluttering
>> up your view, etc. Or are worried about the sheer size of the file, etc.
>>
>> You CAN simulate what was done in the old days when they opened new
>> books each period. This is just like when you created your gnucash
>> books in the first place. You run a final Balance Sheet report which
>> gives you the balances of all of the standing accounts (asset,
>> liability, and equity). You create a new set of books, say by
>> exporting the CoA and importing that to a new set of books (all
>> accounts zero) and can delete any accounts that are obsolete. You
>> then enter the initial values from the Balance Sheet << note: I never
>> use the facility to create accounts with an initial value but instead
>> with an opening transaction, or rather two so each is split on only
>> one side >>
>>
>> You of course SAVE the old file. If you at some future time want to
>> look at old (prior period) transactions you simply ask gnucash to
>> open THAT (saved) file instead of the one you are currently using.
>>
>> Michael D Novack
>>
>> PS: All of my books are small enough that I have never been tempted
>> to do this. The obsolete accounts do not appear in the reports as
>> furnished to the boards of the organizations because EDITED first <<
>> in other words, I do not expect gnucash to produce the final pretty
>> version of reports. I have to edit them anyway to add annotations
>> explaining and unusual entries so all the editing for "pretty print"
>> etc. can be done at that time >>
>>
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-- 

Jeff Abrahamson
+33 6 24 40 01 57
+44 7920 594 255

http://p27.eu/jeff/

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Re: Year end issues

[Ronal B Morse]

This is what I do, but I'm only dealing with household and personal 
accounts and smallish investment portfolios. Because the statement 
closing dates for the investment and personal bank and credit accounts 
don't correspond exactly with the beginning date of the new book, 
there's always some monkey motion at the first of the year to "fix" 
opening balances or manually add transactions that were in float.


Not much work, actually, and this keeps the year's data file (and 
backups) down to a reasonable size.  Access to past data is as easy as 
opening the appropriate file (one must remember to ensure you're working 
on the correct data at the start of the next session as the autobot 
opens the last data file you uses, not the newest by date).


I understand that people using GnuCash for business purposes may be 
facing different issues and restrictions.


RBM.


On 01/15/2018 01:54 PM, Mike or Penny Novack wrote:

Let's discuss this (and possible options)

First, you need to understand what "close the books" does do and what 
is does not do. It creates a transaction (or transactions) to zero out 
income and expense accounts to equity. It does NOT remove transactions 
and so will not make your file smaller.


It sounds like what you want is something more like to was in the old 
days of books kept in BOOKS, pen and ink on paper.  What was common at 
the end of each accounting period was to close the old books and open 
new ones. The old volumes were put safely by in case they needed to be 
referenced later.


One of the advantages of software like gnucash is that it can create 
the usual reports without actually closing the books. Easy to 
reference old transactions (previous accounting periods) without 
having to "bring them back" as they would have done in the old days 
when physical books. But suppose you don't want this, you don't want 
to be seeing all those accounts that have become obsolete cluttering 
up your view, etc. Or are worried about the sheer size of the file, etc.


You CAN simulate what was done in the old days when they opened new 
books each period. This is just like when you created your gnucash 
books in the first place. You run a final Balance Sheet report which 
gives you the balances of all of the standing accounts (asset, 
liability, and equity). You create a new set of books, say by 
exporting the CoA and importing that to a new set of books (all 
accounts zero) and can delete any accounts that are obsolete. You then 
enter the initial values from the Balance Sheet << note: I never use 
the facility to create accounts with an initial value but instead with 
an opening transaction, or rather two so each is split on only one 
side >>


You of course SAVE the old file. If you at some future time want to 
look at old (prior period) transactions you simply ask gnucash to open 
THAT (saved) file instead of the one you are currently using.


Michael D Novack

PS: All of my books are small enough that I have never been tempted to 
do this. The obsolete accounts do not appear in the reports as 
furnished to the boards of the organizations because EDITED first << 
in other words, I do not expect gnucash to produce the final pretty 
version of reports. I have to edit them anyway to add annotations 
explaining and unusual entries so all the editing for "pretty print" 
etc. can be done at that time >>


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Re: Year end issues

[Mike or Penny Novack]

Let's discuss this (and possible options)

First, you need to understand what "close the books" does do and what is 
does not do. It creates a transaction (or transactions) to zero out 
income and expense accounts to equity. It does NOT remove transactions 
and so will not make your file smaller.


It sounds like what you want is something more like to was in the old 
days of books kept in BOOKS, pen and ink on paper.  What was common at 
the end of each accounting period was to close the old books and open 
new ones. The old volumes were put safely by in case they needed to be 
referenced later.


One of the advantages of software like gnucash is that it can create the 
usual reports without actually closing the books. Easy to reference old 
transactions (previous accounting periods) without having to "bring them 
back" as they would have done in the old days when physical books. But 
suppose you don't want this, you don't want to be seeing all those 
accounts that have become obsolete cluttering up your view, etc. Or are 
worried about the sheer size of the file, etc.


You CAN simulate what was done in the old days when they opened new 
books each period. This is just like when you created your gnucash books 
in the first place. You run a final Balance Sheet report which gives you 
the balances of all of the standing accounts (asset, liability, and 
equity). You create a new set of books, say by exporting the CoA and 
importing that to a new set of books (all accounts zero) and can delete 
any accounts that are obsolete. You then enter the initial values from 
the Balance Sheet << note: I never use the facility to create accounts 
with an initial value but instead with an opening transaction, or rather 
two so each is split on only one side >>


You of course SAVE the old file. If you at some future time want to look 
at old (prior period) transactions you simply ask gnucash to open THAT 
(saved) file instead of the one you are currently using.


Michael D Novack

PS: All of my books are small enough that I have never been tempted to 
do this. The obsolete accounts do not appear in the reports as furnished 
to the boards of the organizations because EDITED first << in other 
words, I do not expect gnucash to produce the final pretty version of 
reports. I have to edit them anyway to add annotations explaining and 
unusual entries so all the editing for "pretty print" etc. can be done 
at that time >>


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Re: Year end issues

[jeffrey black]

On 1/15/2018 10:26 AM, Jack Whyte wrote:
> Thanks Ken
>
> I wrote a reply before reading yours!
>
> The file is very large and unwieldy already - are there any limits on the
> file size?  One of the impacts is also that each time I update the file at
> least one copy is made - the folder on my MAC for December grew to >130MB.
>
> JACK
>
> On 15 January 2018 at 16:11, Ken Pyzik <py...@cox.net> wrote:
>
>> David -- Excellent point.  To expand upon it let's demonstrate this:
>>
>> At 12/31/2017 -- you have balances in all your accounts -- for brevity,
>> will just use one real simple example:
>>
>> At 12/31/2017 -  let's assume the checking account has a balance of $500.
>>   If you eliminate all 2017 transactions, the balance would be different --
>> as it would be the balance as of the end of 2016 (since the net effect of
>> all of the 2017 transactions would have been eliminated).   Now let's say
>> at the end of 2016, the balance of the checking account was $1200 (i.e., as
>> a result of all the transactions for 2017, the net effect was a -$700).
>> But you eliminated the transactions so the starting balance is now $1200 --
>> but that is not what your starting balance was on 1/1/2018.
>>
>> So, one could isolate all the 2017 transactions -- place them in 2017
>> accounts -- calculate the net effect of all of those transactions on each
>> account -- plug "net-effect-transactions" to the existing accounts with
>> contra (balancing transactions) to "other balancing / opening balances
>> adjustments account" and in effect do what you want.  But the labor to do
>> this would probably be more than just doing as David has said -- start a
>> new file for 2018.
>>
>> Finally, if you really want to isolate 2017 - you could set up "checking
>> account-2017 " and then another "checking account -2018' as 2 separate
>> accounts and start charging the new expenses, etc. to the new 2018
>> account.  But again - this has a tendency to double all your accounts.
>> That is why the reporting mechanism in there.   You can have continuous
>> accounts, and isolate, for reporting, a number of transactions for any
>> given period (a month, a year, a calendar year, a fiscal year, a 6-30 to
>> 6-30 time period, etc.)
>>
>> Hope that helps and did not confuse the subject.
>>
>>
>> -Original Message-
>> From: gnucash-user [mailto:gnucash-user-bounces+pyz01=cox@gnucash.org]
>> On Behalf Of David T. via gnucash-user
>> Sent: Monday, January 15, 2018 7:39 AM
>> To: Jack Whyte <jvwh...@gmail.com>
>> Cc: gnucash-user@gnucash.org
>> Subject: Re: Year end issues
>>
>> No, there isn’t. The Close book feature simply creates a transaction that
>> zeroes out your income and expense accounts as of a given date.
>>
>> In a double entry accounting system, if you delete the expense side of the
>> transaction, what do you suggest doing for the Checking account side? If
>> you are desperate to clear out older transactions, you will most likely
>> have to create a new file with a new set of opening balances. See
>> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Closing_Books <https://wiki.gnucash.org/
>> wiki/Closing_Books>
>>
>> Of course, many people prefer to keep historical transactions, and use
>> reports to extract subsets of their file as needed.
>>
>> David
>>
>>> On Jan 15, 2018, at 8:03 PM, Jack Whyte <jvwh...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi there
>>>
>>> I have used GNU Cash for a number of years to monitor my personal
>> finances.   I have just run the Tools > Close book function to clear down
>> all my expense & income account balances as at 31/12/17 however I seem to
>> have transactions in all of these accounts going back, in some cases, to
>> 2009/2010.
>>> Can someone please advise me if there is a straightforward mechanism to
>> delete all transactions in these accounts - say, up to and including
>> 31/12/2016 as I am concerned the file, currently at around 1.3MB, will
>> become unwieldy and unmanageable.
>>> Thanks & regards
>>> Jack
>>> ___
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>>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
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>>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
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>&

Re: Year end issues

[Maf. King]

On Monday, 15 January 2018 15:03:33 GMT Jack Whyte wrote:
> I am concerned the file, currently at around 1.3MB, will
> become unwieldy and unmanageable.
> 
> Thanks & regards
> Jack


Hi Jack,

My business data file is around the 25 MB mark at the moment, my personal file 
is more like 5.6MB, so you are not about to hit a file size limit.

HTH,
Maf.
 
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RE: Year end issues

[Ken Pyzik]

Jack - - Not sure on the size constraints – someone else can maybe answer. 

 

With respect to getting it down to a manageable size – I can only speak from my 
experience.  When I transferred over from Quicken, I had transactions dating 
back to 2003.  Bringing them all over was messy.  But I did it on a test basis. 
 So, I was able to start over rather easily. 

When instead, I transferred over only from 2014 and forward, it still was not 
clean.  

 

So, what I finally decided to do was transfer over everything – and then 
eliminated all transactions I did not want “in mass”.  But before I did that – 
I noted what the beginning balances were for specific accounts BEFORE 
eliminating the transactions, plugged them in as the opening balances in a 
separate account and then started eliminating.  Interesting, the best part 
about GNU-CASH is that it has an automatic “imbalance” account that accumulates 
all the “out-of-balance” situations.  When I was finally done, I made sure 
everything was in balance – altered the opening balances according – and I was 
where I wanted to be.  

 

This may or may not work for you.  There is a little bit of trial and error 
involved.  The best thing to do is to make a backup copy – and work on it until 
you get it the way you like.  If you screw up – no biggie – you still have your 
production version.  When the test is finally the way you want it – enter any 
current transactions – rename the production file something new – and then go 
and rename the test account to the production name and make it your production 
going forward.  That’s what worked for me – and it worked like a charm in 
eliminating 9 years of data.  Good luck! 

 

 

From: johnv.wh...@gmail.com [mailto:johnv.wh...@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Jack 
Whyte
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2018 8:27 AM
To: Ken Pyzik <py...@cox.net>
Cc: David T. <sunfis...@yahoo.com>; Gnucash Users <gnucash-user@gnucash.org>
Subject: Re: Year end issues

 

Thanks Ken

I wrote a reply before reading yours!

The file is very large and unwieldy already - are there any limits on the file 
size?  One of the impacts is also that each time I update the file at least one 
copy is made - the folder on my MAC for December grew to >130MB.

JACK

 

On 15 January 2018 at 16:11, Ken Pyzik <py...@cox.net <mailto:py...@cox.net> > 
wrote:

David -- Excellent point.  To expand upon it let's demonstrate this:

At 12/31/2017 -- you have balances in all your accounts -- for brevity, will 
just use one real simple example:

At 12/31/2017 -  let's assume the checking account has a balance of $500.   If 
you eliminate all 2017 transactions, the balance would be different -- as it 
would be the balance as of the end of 2016 (since the net effect of all of the 
2017 transactions would have been eliminated).   Now let's say at the end of 
2016, the balance of the checking account was $1200 (i.e., as a result of all 
the transactions for 2017, the net effect was a -$700).  But you eliminated the 
transactions so the starting balance is now $1200 -- but that is not what your 
starting balance was on 1/1/2018.

So, one could isolate all the 2017 transactions -- place them in 2017 accounts 
-- calculate the net effect of all of those transactions on each account -- 
plug "net-effect-transactions" to the existing accounts with contra (balancing 
transactions) to "other balancing / opening balances adjustments account" and 
in effect do what you want.  But the labor to do this would probably be more 
than just doing as David has said -- start a new file for 2018.

Finally, if you really want to isolate 2017 - you could set up "checking 
account-2017 " and then another "checking account -2018' as 2 separate accounts 
and start charging the new expenses, etc. to the new 2018 account.  But again - 
this has a tendency to double all your accounts.  That is why the reporting 
mechanism in there.   You can have continuous accounts, and isolate, for 
reporting, a number of transactions for any given period (a month, a year, a 
calendar year, a fiscal year, a 6-30 to 6-30 time period, etc.)

Hope that helps and did not confuse the subject.


-Original Message-
From: gnucash-user [mailto:gnucash-user-bounces+pyz01 
<mailto:gnucash-user-bounces%2Bpyz01> =cox@gnucash.org 
<mailto:cox@gnucash.org> ] On Behalf Of David T. via gnucash-user
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2018 7:39 AM
To: Jack Whyte <jvwh...@gmail.com <mailto:jvwh...@gmail.com> >
Cc: gnucash-user@gnucash.org <mailto:gnucash-user@gnucash.org> 
Subject: Re: Year end issues

No, there isn’t. The Close book feature simply creates a transaction that 
zeroes out your income and expense accounts as of a given date.

In a double entry accounting system, if you delete the expense side of the 
transaction, what do you suggest doing for the Checking account side? If you 
are desperate to clear out older transactio

Re: Year end issues

[Jack Whyte]

Thanks Ken

I wrote a reply before reading yours!

The file is very large and unwieldy already - are there any limits on the
file size?  One of the impacts is also that each time I update the file at
least one copy is made - the folder on my MAC for December grew to >130MB.

JACK

On 15 January 2018 at 16:11, Ken Pyzik <py...@cox.net> wrote:

> David -- Excellent point.  To expand upon it let's demonstrate this:
>
> At 12/31/2017 -- you have balances in all your accounts -- for brevity,
> will just use one real simple example:
>
> At 12/31/2017 -  let's assume the checking account has a balance of $500.
>  If you eliminate all 2017 transactions, the balance would be different --
> as it would be the balance as of the end of 2016 (since the net effect of
> all of the 2017 transactions would have been eliminated).   Now let's say
> at the end of 2016, the balance of the checking account was $1200 (i.e., as
> a result of all the transactions for 2017, the net effect was a -$700).
> But you eliminated the transactions so the starting balance is now $1200 --
> but that is not what your starting balance was on 1/1/2018.
>
> So, one could isolate all the 2017 transactions -- place them in 2017
> accounts -- calculate the net effect of all of those transactions on each
> account -- plug "net-effect-transactions" to the existing accounts with
> contra (balancing transactions) to "other balancing / opening balances
> adjustments account" and in effect do what you want.  But the labor to do
> this would probably be more than just doing as David has said -- start a
> new file for 2018.
>
> Finally, if you really want to isolate 2017 - you could set up "checking
> account-2017 " and then another "checking account -2018' as 2 separate
> accounts and start charging the new expenses, etc. to the new 2018
> account.  But again - this has a tendency to double all your accounts.
> That is why the reporting mechanism in there.   You can have continuous
> accounts, and isolate, for reporting, a number of transactions for any
> given period (a month, a year, a calendar year, a fiscal year, a 6-30 to
> 6-30 time period, etc.)
>
> Hope that helps and did not confuse the subject.
>
>
> -Original Message-
> From: gnucash-user [mailto:gnucash-user-bounces+pyz01=cox@gnucash.org]
> On Behalf Of David T. via gnucash-user
> Sent: Monday, January 15, 2018 7:39 AM
> To: Jack Whyte <jvwh...@gmail.com>
> Cc: gnucash-user@gnucash.org
> Subject: Re: Year end issues
>
> No, there isn’t. The Close book feature simply creates a transaction that
> zeroes out your income and expense accounts as of a given date.
>
> In a double entry accounting system, if you delete the expense side of the
> transaction, what do you suggest doing for the Checking account side? If
> you are desperate to clear out older transactions, you will most likely
> have to create a new file with a new set of opening balances. See
> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Closing_Books <https://wiki.gnucash.org/
> wiki/Closing_Books>
>
> Of course, many people prefer to keep historical transactions, and use
> reports to extract subsets of their file as needed.
>
> David
>
> > On Jan 15, 2018, at 8:03 PM, Jack Whyte <jvwh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi there
> >
> > I have used GNU Cash for a number of years to monitor my personal
> finances.   I have just run the Tools > Close book function to clear down
> all my expense & income account balances as at 31/12/17 however I seem to
> have transactions in all of these accounts going back, in some cases, to
> 2009/2010.
> >
> > Can someone please advise me if there is a straightforward mechanism to
> delete all transactions in these accounts - say, up to and including
> 31/12/2016 as I am concerned the file, currently at around 1.3MB, will
> become unwieldy and unmanageable.
> >
> > Thanks & regards
> > Jack
> > ___
> > gnucash-user mailing list
> > gnucash-user@gnucash.org
> > 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.
>
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> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>
>
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Re: Year end issues

[Jack Whyte]

Thanks David

Yes but as it’s a double entry system, the net effect of deleting a year’s
worth of transactions in an account where close book has been applied
should be nil so the Checking account should not be effected?

Am I missing something?

It could be a bit laborious deleting all these transactions but if the net
effect is zero I should be ok.

Perhaps I’ll give it a try with a couple of accounts + report back.

Jack

On 15 January 2018 at 15:38, David T.  wrote:

> No, there isn’t. The Close book feature simply creates a transaction that
> zeroes out your income and expense accounts as of a given date.
>
> In a double entry accounting system, if you delete the expense side of the
> transaction, what do you suggest doing for the Checking account side? If
> you are desperate to clear out older transactions, you will most likely
> have to create a new file with a new set of opening balances. See
> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Closing_Books
>
> Of course, many people prefer to keep historical transactions, and use
> reports to extract subsets of their file as needed.
>
> David
>
> On Jan 15, 2018, at 8:03 PM, Jack Whyte  wrote:
>
> Hi there
>
> I have used GNU Cash for a number of years to monitor my personal
> finances.   I have just run the Tools > Close book function to clear down
> all my expense & income account balances as at 31/12/17 however I seem to
> have transactions in all of these accounts going back, in some cases, to
> 2009/2010.
>
> Can someone please advise me if there is a straightforward mechanism to
> delete all transactions in these accounts - say, up to and including
> 31/12/2016 as I am concerned the file, currently at around 1.3MB, will
> become unwieldy and unmanageable.
>
> Thanks & regards
> Jack
> ___
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RE: Year end issues

[Ken Pyzik]

David -- Excellent point.  To expand upon it let's demonstrate this: 

At 12/31/2017 -- you have balances in all your accounts -- for brevity, will 
just use one real simple example: 

At 12/31/2017 -  let's assume the checking account has a balance of $500.   If 
you eliminate all 2017 transactions, the balance would be different -- as it 
would be the balance as of the end of 2016 (since the net effect of all of the 
2017 transactions would have been eliminated).   Now let's say at the end of 
2016, the balance of the checking account was $1200 (i.e., as a result of all 
the transactions for 2017, the net effect was a -$700).  But you eliminated the 
transactions so the starting balance is now $1200 -- but that is not what your 
starting balance was on 1/1/2018.

So, one could isolate all the 2017 transactions -- place them in 2017 accounts 
-- calculate the net effect of all of those transactions on each account -- 
plug "net-effect-transactions" to the existing accounts with contra (balancing 
transactions) to "other balancing / opening balances adjustments account" and 
in effect do what you want.  But the labor to do this would probably be more 
than just doing as David has said -- start a new file for 2018.  

Finally, if you really want to isolate 2017 - you could set up "checking 
account-2017 " and then another "checking account -2018' as 2 separate accounts 
and start charging the new expenses, etc. to the new 2018 account.  But again - 
this has a tendency to double all your accounts.  That is why the reporting 
mechanism in there.   You can have continuous accounts, and isolate, for 
reporting, a number of transactions for any given period (a month, a year, a 
calendar year, a fiscal year, a 6-30 to 6-30 time period, etc.)

Hope that helps and did not confuse the subject. 


-Original Message-
From: gnucash-user [mailto:gnucash-user-bounces+pyz01=cox@gnucash.org] On 
Behalf Of David T. via gnucash-user
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2018 7:39 AM
To: Jack Whyte <jvwh...@gmail.com>
Cc: gnucash-user@gnucash.org
Subject: Re: Year end issues

No, there isn’t. The Close book feature simply creates a transaction that 
zeroes out your income and expense accounts as of a given date.

In a double entry accounting system, if you delete the expense side of the 
transaction, what do you suggest doing for the Checking account side? If you 
are desperate to clear out older transactions, you will most likely have to 
create a new file with a new set of opening balances. See 
https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Closing_Books 
<https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Closing_Books>

Of course, many people prefer to keep historical transactions, and use reports 
to extract subsets of their file as needed.

David

> On Jan 15, 2018, at 8:03 PM, Jack Whyte <jvwh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi there
> 
> I have used GNU Cash for a number of years to monitor my personal finances.   
> I have just run the Tools > Close book function to clear down all my expense 
> & income account balances as at 31/12/17 however I seem to have transactions 
> in all of these accounts going back, in some cases, to 2009/2010.
> 
> Can someone please advise me if there is a straightforward mechanism to 
> delete all transactions in these accounts - say, up to and including 
> 31/12/2016 as I am concerned the file, currently at around 1.3MB, will become 
> unwieldy and unmanageable.
> 
> Thanks & regards
> Jack
> ___
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user@gnucash.org
> 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.

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Re: Year end issues

[David T. via gnucash-user]

No, there isn’t. The Close book feature simply creates a transaction that 
zeroes out your income and expense accounts as of a given date.

In a double entry accounting system, if you delete the expense side of the 
transaction, what do you suggest doing for the Checking account side? If you 
are desperate to clear out older transactions, you will most likely have to 
create a new file with a new set of opening balances. See 
https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Closing_Books 


Of course, many people prefer to keep historical transactions, and use reports 
to extract subsets of their file as needed.

David

> On Jan 15, 2018, at 8:03 PM, Jack Whyte  wrote:
> 
> Hi there
> 
> I have used GNU Cash for a number of years to monitor my personal finances.   
> I have just run the Tools > Close book function to clear down all my expense 
> & income account balances as at 31/12/17 however I seem to have transactions 
> in all of these accounts going back, in some cases, to 2009/2010.
> 
> Can someone please advise me if there is a straightforward mechanism to 
> delete all transactions in these accounts - say, up to and including 
> 31/12/2016 as I am concerned the file, currently at around 1.3MB, will become 
> unwieldy and unmanageable.
> 
> Thanks & regards
> Jack
> ___
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user@gnucash.org
> 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.

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Re: Year end issues

[Jack Slater]

I was about to ask the same question! Thanks.

On Mon, Jan 15, 2018 at 9:03 AM, Jack Whyte  wrote:

> Hi there
>
> I have used GNU Cash for a number of years to monitor my personal
> finances.   I have just run the Tools > Close book function to clear down
> all my expense & income account balances as at 31/12/17 however I seem to
> have transactions in all of these accounts going back, in some cases, to
> 2009/2010.
>
> Can someone please advise me if there is a straightforward mechanism to
> delete all transactions in these accounts - say, up to and including
> 31/12/2016 as I am concerned the file, currently at around 1.3MB, will
> become unwieldy and unmanageable.
>
> Thanks & regards
> Jack
> ___
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user@gnucash.org
> 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.
>
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