2012-07-15 GnuCash IRC logs
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06:39:32 <Alfred3452> As I understand it there are two different ledgers where a business records transactions with buyers, one in which the records are kept by date where all transactions with all buyers are recorded and another where they keep records for individual buyers, is that right?
06:39:48 <Alfred3452> Could you tell me what is the term for each? I've found conflicting sources
06:40:21 <Alfred3452> I'm a translator and I'm having trouble identifying the right terms
06:42:28 <Alfred3452> anyone?
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13:11:22 <fretegi> hi guys
13:12:07 <fretegi> ok silly question, im wrestling with gnucash, trying to set it up to do quite a bit, but screwed up, need to wipe the whole acct file. cannot find anywhere how to do that, any thoughts?
13:12:26 <fretegi> i already shot myself in the foot and just deleted the file itself, now gnucash whines about that on each open
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13:16:59 <fretegi> anyone here?
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13:21:23 <fretegi> how do u delete and entire account hierarchy
13:21:24 <fretegi> ?
13:24:50 <fretegi> no one knows?
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14:26:50 <Antisoche> fretegi: I'm not sure what you're trying to do. Removing the file will certainly clear the records. You could also just create a new file and that will be empty
14:28:46 <Antisoche> If you want to keep your chart of accounts you can export them and then import them back into the new file you create.
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14:57:11 <fretegi> oh cool, well what i am trying to do is wipe the whole file and not have gnucash give an error it cannot find the file,
15:04:57 <fell> fretegi: just start over with "File->New File". Later you can delete your old file with the tools of your OS.
15:05:19 <fretegi> okie doke thanks
15:05:51 <fretegi> anyway to have a split transaction auto fill out, for things like paychecks that are salary and dont change
15:06:16 <fell> GnuCash remembers the last file, you used for convenience. If that does no longer exists, you get that warning.
15:07:26 <fretegi> ya it didnt pull it up
15:11:33 <fell> If you use the same description as in a previous transaction, autofill should work.
15:12:08 <fell> ... in one of the related accounts.
15:12:58 <fretegi> the split data populated but not all the split lines, ill try again. another things i am having a hard time with is marking a given acct as a tax deduction such as my health savings account or ira contributions etc.
15:17:27 <fell> I made my account hierarchy in the form: expenses:a) tax affecting, ...:b)not tax affecting.
15:17:52 <Antisoche> fretegi: I think what you want to do there is put all your deductions into a single account and then assign the proper tax line item in the Tax report options
15:18:17 <fretegi> damn this this is a pain to set up lol
15:18:54 <fretegi> works sweet though once set up, never used it for such intricate stuff, but ive been wrestling with it for 4 hours now
15:19:05 <Antisoche> Setup takes a little bit of effort but it's not really too bad once you get the hang of it. You can create new accounts on-the-fly so you don't have to do everything upfront, which makes it easier.
15:19:55 <fretegi> ya, but i need a structure for tax purposes, and thats what i keep having to change... so the best way is to have two different account hierarchies? as for tax stuff i just have the normal payroll deductions and stuff
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15:23:06 <Antisoche> Not sure, but I don't think so. For instance, I have expenses:misc (with 7 subaccounts) and expenses:outside_svcs and in my tax report options I have both of these assigned to "Schedule C: Other". I don't think tax stuff is relevant to your hierarchy as long as you assign the categories properly.
15:23:41 <Antisoche> To be clear, I'm referring to Edit->"Tax Report Options"
15:24:35 <fell> which is fine for USA or german VAT but missing in other locales.
15:24:39 <fretegi> all the stuff is grey'd out
15:24:56 <fretegi> cant do anything in edit>tax options
15:25:11 <fretegi> even on the placeholder 'taxes' or an account thereof
15:25:25 <Antisoche> Pick an expense category and then check the box saying "tax related"
15:25:58 <Antisoche> And yeah, I'm referring to US tax code here...
15:26:04 <fretegi> wish i were an account and understood this kind of software better....
15:26:13 <fretegi> lol all places i see tax anything is greyd out...
15:26:49 <Antisoche> (PS: Nothing I say should be interpreted as legal advice - I just know that the IRS hasn't come after me yet)
15:28:09 <Antisoche> fretegi: huh? In edit tax options, you have a list of expense accounts, yes? Click on one of them. Then click the checkbox that says "Tax Related". Then you can select a line item from a form.
15:28:38 <fretegi> in tht box even expenses is greyd, i mean literally everything is greyd out and cannot be selected
15:28:50 <fretegi> on every individual acct, place holder etc
15:29:52 <Antisoche> Maybe you have to hit "Edit" first to setup the report. Can you do that?
15:30:47 <fretegi> oh is this going to actually like create a return off of what i place on this or what? i was more just trying to mark stuff as tax related for year end totals, such as ira contributions etc.
15:31:33 <fretegi> or does it just create a summary page that u hand off to an accountant?
15:31:38 <Antisoche> Yes, you can run a tax report and (if you trust it...) just copy the numbers directly onto your tax form.
15:32:14 <Antisoche> Ah, no - it won't do the actual form, like that you can print and mail. I think that's too much maintenance since they change each year.
15:32:37 <fretegi> ya seemed so, but i was about to be really really impressed lol
15:33:32 <Antisoche> Although: I think the IRS is publishing them as PDF-Form now, so you _could_ write a plugin. But the tax law there is complicated enough that you probably don't want GNUCash to be doing too much work there.
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15:41:27 <fretegi> oh my goodness... are there any real tutorials on split transactions, the help page isnt very helpful, i keep having the damn transaction disappear... been trying to create a split transaction for my paycheck for 2 hours now...
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15:42:41 <fell> I think, the guide is a much better source than help. Did you rad that?
15:42:52 <fell> read
15:42:54 <fretegi> ya did that too
15:43:04 <fretegi> is there a limit to how many lines perhaps?
15:43:11 <fretegi> on a split transaction
15:43:41 <Antisoche> I've split transactions into at least 6. How many are you looking at?
15:44:41 <Antisoche> I also keep my register view as "Auto-Split Ledger" because I find that easier.
15:44:49 <fretegi> 12
15:46:24 <Antisoche> I expect the limit is higher, but you'll have to try and see
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15:58:39 <fretegi> got it wahoo!!
15:58:39 <fretegi> thanks
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17:10:07 <fretegi> is there a way to overwrite the imbalance and equity tabs?
17:10:58 <john> What do you mean by "Tabs"? If it's the identifier for a page, that's the account name.
17:11:18 <fretegi> ok account then :)
17:11:39 <john> Imbalance is an account that's created when you mess up entering a transaction and it doesn't balance when you save it.
17:12:00 <john> Equity should be a placeholder that you don't need to open.
17:13:37 <john> You can edit Equity (select it and select Account|Edit) and change the name to something else if you want. Be careful about scheduled txns -- those are essentially scripts and you'll have to fix them to point to the new account name Equity and any sub accounst.
17:14:41 <john> Imbalance, on the other hand, is a hard-coded value. You could hide it so that it doesn't show up in the chart of accounts, but then you won't necessarily be alerted when you have an out-of-balance transaction.
17:15:03 <fretegi> ok i fixed imbalance issue, thanks for the clarification
17:15:11 <fretegi> now regarding equity, will it update as debts are paid down?
17:15:59 <fretegi> or is that just a snapshot at the creation of the account hierarchy?
17:16:20 <john> Depends on how you've set up your CoA and business features. Normally debts are Liability accounts.
17:16:43 <fretegi> well, first time really setting this up, be honest, im not an account
17:17:09 <fretegi> the intertwining of the accounts on this thing has been a nightmare for me to map out
17:17:56 <john> Equity accounts normally are updated at the end of an accounting period, when you flush the value of Income and Expense accounts to Equity; that leaves the Income and Expense accounts zeroed out for the new period.
17:18:23 <fretegi> hmm, how do u flush them?
17:18:55 <john> If you're not up to speed on accounting and you're running a business, you should either hire an accountant to help you out or take a basic accounting course. The IRS isn't very sympathetic when you screw up your books.
17:19:03 <fretegi> all the neg. equity is in an acct called opening balances, which is kinda cool, but will it go away as the opening debts are paid i guess would be my question
17:19:22 <fretegi> this is just for my own personal finances
17:19:33 <john> You can do it by hand, but there's also a Close Books function in the menu.
17:19:42 <fretegi> just to try to track my own stuff better
17:20:29 <john> Ah, if it's personal finances then ignore equity. It was probably created when you set up your CoA to balance any opening balances you set up.
17:20:46 <fretegi> what is CoA
17:20:48 <fretegi> ?
17:21:06 <john> You could just mark it "hidden" if having it on the CoA bugs you.
17:21:13 <fretegi> chart of accounts
17:21:14 <fretegi> ?
17:22:10 <john> The CoA (yes, chart of accounts) is the hierarchy of accounts, displayed on the Accounts page.
17:22:27 <fretegi> oh great! ok i see, thanks, really clarifying a few things for me
17:22:58 <fretegi> the other side of this is I am trying to get a more professional way of tracking financial activities, i will be opening a business in the somewhat near future
17:23:58 <fretegi> but for the time being, i am trying to learn how to track investments on this software as i am a trader. i see quite a bit about tracking longer term stuff, but when trying to structure P/L's off of daytrades, seems to get fuzzy, have you any ideas on resources where i can get better clarity on how to do that?
17:24:13 <john> For personal purposes, you can read the concepts guide that comes with Gnucash. If you want more, check out your local community college.
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17:25:41 <fretegi> well i understand the tracking of my cost basis and such, have built excel spreadsheets that have been working well thus far come tax time, at least my accountant seems to like them, but when entering the trades into this software, i seem to have trouble getting it right
17:26:05 <fretegi> guess ill just keep playing with it
17:26:33 <john> Look through the user-list archive; we've covered it more than once there.
17:26:46 <fretegi> at gnucash.org?
17:26:56 <john> Yes.
17:27:04 <john> Or at nabble.
17:27:17 <fretegi> perfect, thanks alot for your help
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17:27:28 <john> You're welcome
17:28:30 <fretegi> the close book bit, does that just square up the accounts ?
17:31:43 <john> Dunno what you mean by "square up". To me that means "balance", and that should happen with every transaction.
17:32:53 <john> Close books creates transactions for every Income and Expense account that has a balance, transferring those balances to Equity.
17:33:33 <fretegi> oh i see, so you do that on a schedule, every quarter or such?
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17:37:34 <john> Typically once a year.
17:38:31 <john> If you close the books more often, it's hard to create annual reports.
17:42:55 <fretegi> oh i see now, cool thanks again
18:25:47 *** warlord-afk is now known as warlord
18:26:04 <warlord> fretegi: The key is to make sure the first split you enter is for the current account. Otherwise, as you noticed, the txn disappears.
18:27:20 <warlord> Re: equity -- just to be clear the equity ACCOUNTS are a snapshot. They only update if you manually update them (via e.g. Closing the Books). Some people never do that. For instantaneous equity run the Balance Sheet Report.
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22:44:25 <fretegi> gotcha thanks alot for the help, sorry for the delayed response
22:47:49 <warlord> no worries, fretegi
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