Setting FUND instead of CURRENCY: problem 3/3

[Charles Day]

On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 8:01 AM, Claus A. Schumann <claus at vcp-wuppertal.de>
wrote:

> Derek Atkins schrieb:
> > Quoting "Claus A. Schumann" <claus at vcp-wuppertal.de>:
> >> How to I set up a subaccount for a fund? Should be pretty simple, at
> >> least the guides I found looked like it. But the problem is: Neither
> >> when creating the subaccount nor later on am I able to change it from
> >> CURRENCY to FUND. The funds have all been set up properly I can select
> >> them but cannot confirm my selection.
> >
> > What you don't say is what is the Account Type of the FUND Subaccount?
> > When you're in the "Edit Account" window, the lower-left pane of the
> > window should be the account type.  What do you have selected in
> > there?  For a FUND you need to select either Stock or Mutual type.
> > Once you select the type, THEN you can select the FUND security.
>
> Weeell, getting back to quoting myself:
> "And if this involves calling me bloody stupid for overlooking something
> simple, I'd be fine with that to."
>
> First the simple truth: I've never changed this option. Now that I know
> of it, I was able to select the funds. So, thank you for pointing this
> out to me.
>
> But the question remains: Why did I make this mistake? I simply had this
> account set on Aktiva (assets) because a fund would be considered an
> asset in a balance. I went back to the sub account and checked which
> other types would have been available:
> bank
> cash
> assets (same name as group?)
> credit card
> liabilities
> shares (stock?)
> fund
> claim
> liability
> (I am also under the impression that some financial expressions to not
> have the same meaning when translated. But you would probably be even
> more uninterested if I had given the german names.)
>
> The purpose of these subtypes appears to be to make ordering by
> liquidity possible.
>

These are all just different types of assets. They appear to be ordered by
liquidity, but I don't know if that was intentional. (And there are
exceptions. The stock of a privately-held company might be horribly
illiquid.)

Fund and Stock account types are for non-currency holdings, while the others
are currency-denominated. I'm not sure about the use of the word "Aktiva" in
German accounting, but in English an "Asset" account would typically be used
as a parent account or for an illiquid fixed asset, such as a house or
factory equipment.


> To prevent users from selecting the general type for an account instead
> of the subtype, would it be worth having some accounts types _not_ show
> up as valid options? Or, specifically to my case, would not having only
> cash
> bank
> shares/stock
> fund
> claims/bills-I-sent-to-others
> assets(not Aktiva but hard to sell stuff like machinery)
> show up been better?
>

If I use "Asset" for the parent account type, then the types allowed for
subaccounts is restricted to the list you've given plus "Credit Card" and
"A/P" (bills to be paid). Those last two don't seem to make sense - I would
think that these would only be allowed under a "Liability" parent. But
perhaps some flexibility is allowed.

If I'd phrase this as a suggestion where would I need to post this?
> (Or am I again overlooking some simple why it is a bad idea?)
>

Once you've decided that it's appropriate, bug reporting and enhancement
requests should go to Bugzilla.
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/browse.cgi?product=GnuCash

Cheers,
Charles

Regardless, thank you anyway for helping me out.
> Best regards,
>     Claus
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