Stefan,
Not really, on either count. There is no predefined report, even playing with
account selection, that is going to get what you are looking for. It also is
not easy to create custom reports.
The closest I could get was to choose only asset accounts for a cash flow
report. That did tell me how much each revenue account contributed to those
assets, and how much each expense took away from them, but the Income Statement
gave me the exact same numbers. (as well they should)
But fret not.
I read over those pages you linked and honestly, they are quite pedantic. I
really don’t see the point. Yes, the Income Statement DOES tell you how sales
and expenses affected the financial position of the business, at least partly.
So does a Statement of Cash Flows. The Balance Sheet tells you what that
position is. A comparison of Balance Sheets will tell you how much certain
positions changed.
All that chapter does is restate everything already found on the main financial
reports. No new information is gleaned from doing so. No questions are answered.
Saying the business collected $25M in cash doesn’t tell me anything interesting
or useful.
Did they end up (after outlays) with MORE or LESS cash than they started with?
What do they NEED the cash for? Are they planning an expansion? Remodel? New
equipment? Paying dividends?
Can they meet their current liabilities or are they having to shuffle the bills
and take out short-term (or worse - PAYROLL) loans to keep afloat?
Just saying that, “revenues resulted in collecting $25M in cash and an
additional $1M in receivables” answers none of these interesting and very
pertinent questions.
Now, did receivables go down? Are clients paying better than before? That’s an
interesting cash-flow question that affects the financial health of the
business.
As well, saying the business increased their inventory by $200K doesn’t by
itself mean much. Perhaps they had too little and couldn’t realize their full
sales potential. Or perhaps they are already overbought and they are chasing
sales with goods. (that’s a losing proposition in case you didn’t know)
If they are buying too much inventory and cash is tight, that is the likely the
biggest reason for their stress.
Looking at how much they bought, how much they sold, and how much they have
left is important, but it has to be in the context of what their inventory
level needs to be for their sales targets. Just regurgitating in a ’summary’
doesn’t serve any purpose other than to take up time and paper and ink.
I’ll digress, but I read that chapter to instruct you to simply rephrase
selected parts of the main reports using more words and call it a ’summary’ as
if something useful had been done.
I’d junk that book and opt for a real accounting text book. There are many
excellent examples online, or you can buy used copies for half-price or less at
any college bookstore.
Regards,
Adrien
> On Feb 28, 2018, at 5:24 PM, Stefan Riha wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I'm a beginner and I'd like to examine how sales and expenses change assets
> and liabilities (a.k.a ."summary journal entry", see e.g. Accounting
> workbook for dummies by J. Tracey, link to google books below).
>
> I found that the cash flow report almost gets me there, but not quite. If I
> choose the income accounts I'm interested in, it lists the affected assets,
> but it doesn't show how much each income account is contributing
> individually (if I understand correctly, the sum of selected income
> accounts should then equal the difference between "Money In" and "Money
> Out".)
>
> Is there a way to get summary journals in gnucash?
>
> If not, would it be easy to implement this in the existing cash flow
> reports?
>
> Thanks for your help!
>
>
> https://books.google.com.au/books?id=ZeVcYteHJKcC&pg=PA105&lpg=PA105&dq=examining+how+sales+and+expenses+change+assets+and+liabilities&source=bl&ots=Em7-PL1WDz&sig=PWR07S58Bbj3tar5uYGQrkbzdGU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiC1Ymc3snZAhUKp5QKHRy2BNYQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=examining%20how%20sales%20and%20expenses%20change%20assets%20and%20liabilities&f=false
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