starting balance is not null

[SafetyIng]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I am currently seeing the "Starting Amounts" of the asset accounts as "Unbalanced".

Describe the solution you'd like
The problem is that these are assets that already existed before. This should be able to be specified as a "starting balance" when an account is created?

[powerpaul17]

Hello, yes that's the current behavior as I haven't implemented a starting balance for accounts yet. The "Unbalanced" value is also not completely correct as it is only calculated from the account type summaries and not from the individual transactions.

[powerpaul17]

I'm also not sure if it's good to add a starting balance to an account or if it should be handled by a "starting balance account" under the equity section. I think Gnucash handles it this way..

[SafetyIng]

Traditionally in double-entry bookkeeping, there is an account for starting assets and ending assets for the respective accounting year. Perhaps it would be useful to automatically set up the accounts for an account system accordingly and to have the option of having them displayed or hidden in the graphics?

[powerpaul17]

That is more or less how Gnucash describes it. I think they have 'equity' accounts for that. In any case automatic generation of accounts is a bit problematic since it's impossible to cover all user's cases..

[frake65]

Probably the usual workaround (and also the one everybody will find theirselves) for this issue is to set a starting balance as first transaction for a time before the imported or "really" booked transactions start.

[powerpaul17]

That's right but it leaves the transaction unbalanced since there is no corresponding account. I am thinking about adding an equity account type but I'm not quite sure about the details.