2025-07-18 GnuCash IRC logs
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08:41:01 <lemuria> hi, is there a way to enforce double-entry accounting standards for custom currencies? i know of the stock and security workarounds but i haven't been able to find a way to enforce double-entry standards for those
08:41:54 <lemuria> i know that i could also use the XXX currency, but i kinda want it to display the custom prefix and not XXX
12:52:02 <fell> Lemuria, I don't understand your question.
13:00:27 <lemuria> alright, i'll see if i can rephrase it again...
13:00:42 <lemuria> so when i use the security editor to create the custom currency
13:01:21 <lemuria> then create a top-level "income" account that's actually a stock account using the custom currency (hereafter "points")
13:02:10 <lemuria> and do the same for expenses, and then make a top-level asset account using XXX (no currency), then a stock account equivalent to a national currency checking account under that
13:02:53 <lemuria> and then create a transaction of 1 point in the income account
13:03:40 <lemuria> i try to move that 1 point to the point "checking account", but it results in there being two points instead
13:03:50 <lemuria> i hope that it's much clearer this time
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14:24:45 <jralls> lemuria, GnuCash allows non-asset accounts to be denominated only in ISO-4217 recognized currencies. Stock accounts are Asset, income and expense accounts are Equity. That means that while you can make transactions with your hack you never get your book to balance because all of the splits will be on asset accounts.
14:31:30 <jralls> Note also that your fake asset and expense accounts won't respond to the reversed balance accounts preference because they're really asset accounts, so income balances will always be negative and expense balances always positive.
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14:33:59 <jralls> You might consider an alternate hack where you use one of the not-really-a-currency currencies--the ones that start with an X--and change the local symbol to whatever you like.
14:34:15 <lemuria> Wait, you can change the XXX currency symbol?
14:40:10 <jralls> As for your problem with 1 point turning into 2, your 1 point transaction should be debit checking 1 point and credit income 1 point. Checking's balance will increase by 1, Income will decrease (become more negative) by 1, and total assets will be unchanged because as far as GnuCash is concerned you're moving the 1 point from one asset account to another.
14:44:21 <lemuria> Ah, makes sense. Since with the hack that I'm using, GnuCash doesn't do the automatic double-entry enforcement that it would do with ISO 4217 currencies
14:48:47 <lemuria> Yeah, the X currency hack might be better since there's no need at all to exchange this custom currency with ISO 4217. Is there a way to change that local symbol?
14:50:17 <jralls> Yes, in the security editor. It's the only field you can change on currencies.
14:52:12 <lemuria> Changed the display symbol. Should be good enough.
14:52:50 <lemuria> Was there a specific design reason why they never bothered to allow non-4217 non-assets?
14:53:58 <lemuria> But at the end of the day, this is a very rare edge case. There's always messing with the source code, but I'm not sure I can entrust my financial data to my programming skills
14:54:00 <jralls> Dunno, wasn't around then. But I agree with it because it's more or less required by GAAP and the IAS.
14:57:47 <lemuria> What part of the GAAP exactly requires that? I don't exactly know, since I'm just using Gnucash for personal finances.
15:02:24 <jralls> It's a combination of tax laws that require books be kept in the national currency and GAAP/IAS requirements that all transactions be valued in the book (IAS uses the word "home") currency. GnuCash doesn't enforce that but if you do otherwise it becomes very difficult to get the trial balance to balance.
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