Re: Newbie Question
All the account data is in a single file, whose name depends on what you called it when you did the first save, something like myaccounts.gnucash. If you have moved that file then when you open GC it will try to reopen the original and will show an error when it can't find it. Just ignore that error then use File > Open to browse to the file wherever you have put it. Don't open one of the ones with numbers in, those are timestamps of the backups made each time you save. Colin On 6 September 2017 at 13:57, Nigel Snow wrote: > Thanks, > That was the answer I was looking for > > However I now have a more serious problem; in the process of trying to move > all the GnuCash files and application to their own directory, I have lost all > the work I have done the last 3 days > the application has lost links to all the accounts and data > How do I retrieve that? > > > >> On 6 Sep 2017, at 15.02, Mike or Penny Novack >> wrote: >> >>> On 9/6/2017 6:00 AM, Nigel Snow wrote: >>> Hi, >>> I am new to GnuCash. >>> I have finished setting up my chart of accounts manually, but now I need to >>> populate Opening Balances. >>> I understand that option was only available in the wizard. >>> The question is how to set up Opening Balances Manually? >>> >> Exactly, you enter the transaction manually (just like you will be entering >> other transactions). In other words, this is simply the first transaction of >> the accounting period. >> >> BUT -- because doing a two way split transaction is tricky, I suggest you >> use TWO transactions, one for the credit side of equity and one for the >> debit side. >> >> You want a BALANCE SHEET from your old method of accounting that would be >> valid for the first day of your new set of books under gnucash. Look at the >> total assets amount. Create a transaction to credit equity for that amount >> and hit split. Change the split amount to the first asset account amount and >> specify the account. Repeat till there is nothing left in Imbalance. Then >> that side of the split is done. OK, now do the same for the total amount of >> liabilities except this time you are doing a debit to equity. >> >> Michael D Novack >> ___ >> 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. > ___ > 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. ___ 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.
Re: Newbie Question
Thanks, That was the answer I was looking for However I now have a more serious problem; in the process of trying to move all the GnuCash files and application to their own directory, I have lost all the work I have done the last 3 days the application has lost links to all the accounts and data How do I retrieve that? > On 6 Sep 2017, at 15.02, Mike or Penny Novack > wrote: > >> On 9/6/2017 6:00 AM, Nigel Snow wrote: >> Hi, >> I am new to GnuCash. >> I have finished setting up my chart of accounts manually, but now I need to >> populate Opening Balances. >> I understand that option was only available in the wizard. >> The question is how to set up Opening Balances Manually? >> > Exactly, you enter the transaction manually (just like you will be entering > other transactions). In other words, this is simply the first transaction of > the accounting period. > > BUT -- because doing a two way split transaction is tricky, I suggest you use > TWO transactions, one for the credit side of equity and one for the debit > side. > > You want a BALANCE SHEET from your old method of accounting that would be > valid for the first day of your new set of books under gnucash. Look at the > total assets amount. Create a transaction to credit equity for that amount > and hit split. Change the split amount to the first asset account amount and > specify the account. Repeat till there is nothing left in Imbalance. Then > that side of the split is done. OK, now do the same for the total amount of > liabilities except this time you are doing a debit to equity. > > Michael D Novack > ___ > 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. ___ 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.
Re: Newbie Question
On 9/6/2017 6:00 AM, Nigel Snow wrote: Hi, I am new to GnuCash. I have finished setting up my chart of accounts manually, but now I need to populate Opening Balances. I understand that option was only available in the wizard. The question is how to set up Opening Balances Manually? Exactly, you enter the transaction manually (just like you will be entering other transactions). In other words, this is simply the first transaction of the accounting period. BUT -- because doing a two way split transaction is tricky, I suggest you use TWO transactions, one for the credit side of equity and one for the debit side. You want a BALANCE SHEET from your old method of accounting that would be valid for the first day of your new set of books under gnucash. Look at the total assets amount. Create a transaction to credit equity for that amount and hit split. Change the split amount to the first asset account amount and specify the account. Repeat till there is nothing left in Imbalance. Then that side of the split is done. OK, now do the same for the total amount of liabilities except this time you are doing a debit to equity. Michael D Novack ___ 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.
Re: Newbie question .
Hi George, How you record these items will depend a great deal on the exact nature of the item and the nature of the future benefit you receive from them. In the case of a pension the future value may be different from simply the paid in value of the contributions. Depending on the nature of the pension, there may or may not be employer contributions and/or in the case of some government pension contributions from the government and/or payment of interest earned by your contributions. Whether you are able to record this information will largely depend upon whether it is reported to you by whoever runs the pension scheme. One could treat a pension, particularly if you know what its future value is, as an asset which you have purchased instead of treating it as simply as an expense. In this case you could treat the the payments as simply exchanging one asset for another. A sample transaction in this case might be Asset : Bank Account Credit( decrease)$200 Asset: PensionFund:My contributions Debit ( increase) $200 In this case an accountant would say you have capitalized the expenditure on contributions, rather than Asset: Bank Account Credit (decrease) $200 Expense: Pension Contributions Debit (increase) $200 where that expenditure is expensed. Capitalising the expenditure is normally reasonable where the benefit of the expenditure is unlikely to be consumed during the accounting period, normally annually for personal finances. You could then also record other contributions (employer , government , interest etc) under sub accounts of Asset:PensionFund if and when they are reported to you. My superannuation fund reported to me annually any cumulative gais/losses associated with their investment strategies. Generally such contributions in most jurisdictions would be tax-free (but not necessarily and may depend on your local laws) and the transacion would be a debit to the asset account and a credit to a non-taxable income account for the amount of the increase in such contributions. If the above is not clear particularly the idea of at least one debit and one credit entry associated with each transaction, you may need to read up on the basics concepts of double entry accounting Similarly a life insurance is an asset which is purchased by your regular payments. Some insurance policies are simply term insurance, i.e. they only apply for the term you are paying the premiums and you are only entitled to the payout if the insured event occurs during that period (the premiums on these would most likely be treated as an expense) whereas others are cumulative products where you may be entitled to a specified amount at a specific time in your life as well as the insurance payout should you die earlier than that. In this case you have an investment component often as accumulating bonuses to the policy face value. This can be treated as an investment. It is almost impossible to give general advice in detail as you also have to know the legal framework in which these asset products are created and how they are treated in terms of taxation to record them properly. If you are in any doubt, it may pay to consult a local accountant as any guidance here is really only about how you might potentially use Gnucash to record a transaction in general and not specific circumstances. David Cousens - David Cousens -- Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html ___ 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.
Re: Newbie question .
On Sat, Sep 2, 2017 at 3:24 PM, George Laczko wrote: > Hello , > > I have a question . > > I'm saving money on various accounts (pension , insurance , etc ) that > will be used years later and which i currently pay monthly . Where should > i put them in my bookkeeping ? Expenses or savings ? > > ( sorry i'm a new user and english isn't my native language ) > > Your help will be appreciated . > > Regards > > George These are assets. Savings is a type of asset. Be sure to read the users' guide; it goes over much of this type of information. ___ 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.
Re: Newbie Question
> On Jul 7, 2017, at 10:54 AM, Paul Leniston wrote: > > I have just downloaded gnucash and am a little confused. > > > I have two bank accounts, one in UK and one in Spain. Do I need a > differrent common account for each one? > > > In the UK bank I have three accounts. There is a current account, a deposit > account and a credit card account. Do I need a different common account for > each one. > > > Finally I have two long term savings accounts at different banks. Do I need > a different common account for each one? > What do you mean by "common account"? The placeholder that groups them? Most folks group their accounts so that the accounts page summarizes their assets in a way that makes sense to them. For personal finances there are very few rules. If you want to see the totals by currency and bank you could do: Assets GBP Bank1 Current Deposit Bank2 Savings Bank3 Savings EUR Bank4 Current Liabilities GBP Bank1 Credit Card OTOH if you wanted to emphasize the holding term you might do Assets Current GBP Bank1 Current EUR Bank4 Current Deposit GBP Bank1 Deposit Savings GBP Bank2 Savings Bank3 Savings Liabilities Credit Card GBP Bank1 Credit Card For pure currency accounts the GBP and EUR placeholders are optional, but for non-currency accounts (i.e. STOCK or FUND accounts) there must be a parent account in the currency used to price the account. Regards, John Ralls ___ 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.
Re: Newbie Question
If your accounts are in different currencies, which they might be, each one should be denominated in the correct currency. The parent accounts (Assets:Current) probably also need to be set up separately for each currency. However, I am not a multi-currency user, so I may be wrong David C On Fri, Jul 7, 2017 at 1:30 PM, Aaron Laws wrote: > On Fri, Jul 7, 2017 at 1:54 PM, Paul Leniston > wrote: > > > I have just downloaded gnucash and am a little confused. > > > > > > I have two bank accounts, one in UK and one in Spain. Do I need a > > differrent common account for each one? > > > > > > In the UK bank I have three accounts. There is a current account, a > > deposit account and a credit card account. Do I need a different common > > account for each one. > > > > > > Finally I have two long term savings accounts at different banks. Do I > > need a different common account for each one? > > > > > > thanks in advance > > > > > > Paul > > > The usual way to handle this is to have a root level account, Assets, which > is a parent of these accounts. It may also be helpful to you for reporting > purposes to create a subaccount of Assets named Current where you can put > your "current" assets. The credit card is not as asset since it accumulates > debt (liabilities), so it should not be found under the Assets root level > account. You will likely create another root level account, Liabilities, > and again might consider creating a subaccount thereof, Current, for your > "current" liabilities. So, something like this: > > Assets > | > ---Current >| >--- UK Chequing >--- UK Saving >--- Spain Savings > Liabilities > | > ---Current >| >--- UK Credit Card > ___ > 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. > ___ 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.
Re: Newbie Question
On Fri, Jul 7, 2017 at 1:54 PM, Paul Leniston wrote: > I have just downloaded gnucash and am a little confused. > > > I have two bank accounts, one in UK and one in Spain. Do I need a > differrent common account for each one? > > > In the UK bank I have three accounts. There is a current account, a > deposit account and a credit card account. Do I need a different common > account for each one. > > > Finally I have two long term savings accounts at different banks. Do I > need a different common account for each one? > > > thanks in advance > > > Paul The usual way to handle this is to have a root level account, Assets, which is a parent of these accounts. It may also be helpful to you for reporting purposes to create a subaccount of Assets named Current where you can put your "current" assets. The credit card is not as asset since it accumulates debt (liabilities), so it should not be found under the Assets root level account. You will likely create another root level account, Liabilities, and again might consider creating a subaccount thereof, Current, for your "current" liabilities. So, something like this: Assets | ---Current | --- UK Chequing --- UK Saving --- Spain Savings Liabilities | ---Current | --- UK Credit Card ___ 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.
