How to restructure your accounts in GnuCash
Today I have a GnuCash tip that you're sure to love because it's so simple and easy to use. You'll especially appreciate this one if you're new to the idea of managing your personal finances on a computer, but maybe even more so if you're coming to GnuCash from Microsoft Money or Intuit Quicken.
As you come to use and appreciate the power of GnuCash, you'll begin to discover for yourself how you really prefer to classify and categorize the various aspects of your own personal financial picture. When you first set up your accounts structure in GnuCash, you might have made some arbitrary decisions about where accounts should go. As you've become more proficient in using GnuCash, you may now understand this first set of account organization decisions could have been better.
The good news is that with GnuCash you're never tied down to decisions you made when you first installed and started to use the program. Account reorganization is a snap with GnuCash. In the shot above, suppose you've decided that your Savings Accounts, even though they are simple cash accounts, don't belong under Current Assets. You now feel your Money Market Savings Accounts should be located under Investments. It will take about 15 seconds to put your decision into action and begin operating under the new accounts structure.
Begin by right-clicking on the Savings Accounts branch of the GnuCash account hierarchy, and then click Edit Account. In the lower right of the Account Properties dialog box is a miniature view of the GnuCash Accounts hierarchy. The box is labeled Parent Account. Simply click/highlight the branch of the GnuCash Accounts tree under which you want to move this account.
When you close the Account Properties dialog box by clicking OK, your GnuCash Accounts reorganization is complete. Your Savings Accounts are now located under the Investments Account branch.
You can move accounts around like this any time you like, as often as you like. It's a particularly powerful feature for anyone with a need to reclassify accounts from time to time. Someone who operates one or more businesses for example. Or you might want to create a separate branch of accounts to keep track of a home improvement project. The possibilities are bounded only your ability to dream up an appropriate structure.
Importing budget data from .xls or .ods
I recently setup several accounts in GnuCash, but I also have a great deal of legacy data in spreadsheets. The spreadsheets are essentially reconciled receipts that are counted each month. The desire is to eventually reconcile them with my checkbook, which is meticulously maintained within GnuCash and my Treo finance application.
What is the best means to import this spreadsheet data?
Which accounts should I import them too?
Do I need to setup a special account for this reconciled spreadsheet data?
Thx in advance for your help..
Why do it at all?
First of all, I'm not sure there is a good way to import this kind of data. GnuCash wants to see only a limited range of file types for importing: QIF, OFX and QFX. If memory serves, QIF is somewhat human-readable. It may be possible to translate/output/export spreadsheet data into QIF; but if someone has written a procedure to do it, I'm not aware of it.
Honestly though, I have to ask: Why do it at all? The process of accounting is structured such that it offers plenty of opportunities to switch. Every month new statements arrive. Every year we reconcile everything and file reports to the tax authorities.
At every reconciliation the die is cast. It won't change again, short of extraordinary circumstances.
When I started using GnuCash I had been using Microsoft Money. My GnuCash accounts carry nearly identical names to the ones in Money. The opening balances in those accounts (Equity) are equal to the balances remaining after the last transactions recorded in each account.
GnuCash simply starts out where Microsoft Money left off.
RE: Why do it all?
Thx for the reply. Point well taken. It seems that you're suggesting that I leave the legacy data alone and simply start fresh. I suppose that I could take that approach, but I wanted to use GnuCash reporting capabilities to illustrate trends in spending habits etc. I have at least 2.5 yrs of data in those spreadsheets.