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Bug 791160 - Propose Creating New Assets Chapter in Guide, and merging Checkbooks and Investments Chapters into it
Propose Creating New Assets Chapter in Guide, and merging Checkbooks and Inve...
Status: RESOLVED OBSOLETE
Product: GnuCash
Classification: Other
Component: Documentation
2.6.16
Other Mac OS
: Normal normal
: ---
Assigned To: gnucash-documentation-maint
gnucash-documentation-maint
Depends on:
Blocks: 687820
 
 
Reported: 2017-12-03 11:10 UTC by David
Modified: 2018-06-30 00:01 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---



Description David 2017-12-03 11:10:48 UTC
Propose creating a new Chapter "Asset Accounts" to be placed in Tutorial and Concepts Guide following The Basics, and merging "Chapter 5. Checkbooks" and "Chapter 9. Investments" into this new chapter, as outlined in bug 687820 - Proposal to restructure the Tutorial and Concepts Guide. 
Adding this bug to allow for better tracking of the process.
Comment 1 Frank H. Ellenberger 2017-12-03 14:02:48 UTC
In continental Europe we use therefore also localized forms of the latin "Activa" and group equity and liability to "Passiva".

That is based on our preference for the traditional T-account representation, whereas english speakers prefer the staggered representation.

Therefor the accounting equation for us is:

Activa = Passiva
or
Assets = Equity + Liability

subtracting liability on both sides, you get the english form:

Assets - Liability = Equity
or staggered:
  Assets
- Liabilities
------------
  Equity
Comment 2 David 2017-12-03 14:34:02 UTC
Frank, I don't understand. Should I be doing something different?
Comment 3 John Ralls 2017-12-03 16:00:56 UTC
The distinction is actually Generally Accepted Accounting Principals (GAAP), used in the USA, vs. the International Accounting Standards used pretty much everywhere else.

For an Assets chapter the distinction is just in the name, perhaps Active/Assets would be sufficient.
Comment 4 Frank H. Ellenberger 2017-12-03 18:02:08 UTC
(In reply to David from comment #2)
> Frank, I don't understand. Should I be doing something different?

No, sorry for the confusion. Your approach is right.

Comment 1 & 3 should better get a section in current "2.1. Accounting Concepts"
"Regional Views" or similar.

After it is once told - and eventually in the glossary ;-) - , author and translators can use their preferred nomination.

The reason for our continental preference:

Double entry accounting arrived independent of the indo-arabic digits. With the roman numbers we had no zero and no negative numbers. So the credit/debit columns were a tool for easy addition/subtraction also with roman numbers.
Comment 5 John Ralls 2018-06-30 00:01:22 UTC
GnuCash bug tracking has moved to a new Bugzilla host. The new URL for this bug is https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=791160. Please continue processing the bug there and please update any external references or bookmarks.