The following tables describe the menus in the Account Tree Window.

Table 3: File Menu - Access to file and account operations and printing.

Table 4: Edit Menu - Access to file and account editing operations and preferences.

Table 5: View Menu - Changes Account Tree Window view.

Table 6: Actions Menu - Setup scheduled transactions, repair accounts, perform stock splits,transfer and reconcile transactions.

Table 7: Business Menu - Access small business features of GnuCash.

Table 8: Reports Menu - Access GnuCash Reports and Charts.

Table 9: Tools Menu - Access to miscellaneous tools and editors

Table 10: Help Menu - Access to this help and the GnuCash Tutorial and Concepts Guide.

The Account Tree Window has a tool bar to access quickly some common functions used with accounts. The Tool Bar can be hidden or shown by selecting the Toolbar item on the View menu.

Table 11: Account Tree Window Tool Bar

The Summary Bar displays your Net Assets and Profits at a glance. The Summary Bar can be hidden or shown by selecting the Summary Bar item on the View menu.

The Account Tree displays the list of your accounts in hierarchical format. This enables you to organize your accounts by account type.

The boxed plus shape beside the account name is used to open and close the account tree. When you click on the box the plus sign changes into a minus sign to indicate that the tree is opened. You will then see directly below the account name a line leading to either the sub account or another box. This shows you the linked lower level of the account tree.

The default display for the Account Tree Window is in Notebook mode. This is indicated by the tab on the left side of the Account Tree Window. Other tabs will appear below this one when you open reports and more Account Trees.

The Status Bar displays tooltips for the menus that give more explanation to a menu item. It also shows a progress bar when opening or saving a GnuCash data file. The Status Bar can be hidden or shown by selecting the Status Bar item on the View menu.

The following tables describe the menus in the Account Register Window.

Table 13: File Menu - Access to file and account operations and printing.

Table 14: Edit Menu - Access to account and transaction editing operations and finding transactions.

Table 15: View Menu - Changes Account Register Window view.

Table 16: Actions Menu - Enter, delete, split and duplicate transactions. Setup scheduled transactions, repair accounts, perform stock splits,transfer and reconcile transactions.

Table 17: Reports Menu - Access GnuCash Reports and Charts.

Table 18: Tools Menu - Access to miscellaneous tools and editors

Table 19: Help Menu - Access to this help and the GnuCash Tutorial and Concepts Guide.

The Account Register Window has a tool bar to access quickly some common functions used with the list of transactions. The Tool Bar can be hidden or shown by selecting the Toolbar item on the View menu.

Table 20: Account Register Window Tool Bar

The Summary Bar displays balances appropriate for the opened account type at a glance. Usually accounts display today's account balance, any balance for future dates, a balance for cleared items and a reconciled balance. Stock accounts, however, display shares totals and their value. The Summary Bar can be hidden or shown by selecting the Summary Bar item on the View menu.

The List of Transactions displays transactions you have entered and a running balance. It also provides a blank transaction to enter new transactions. The column headings vary according to what type of account you have opened. Common headings are Date, Description, Transfer and Balance.

The View menu can be used to alter the appearance of the List of Transactions. Possible changes are limiting the number of transactions shown, using a different sort order and changing the style to more easily see transactions. The split button also provides quick access to view all the parts of a transaction.

The Status Bar displays a short description when different fields are selected in the list of transactions. The Status Bar can be hidden or shown by selecting the Status Bar item on the View menu.

The General Ledger is an advanced register used to enter transactions without needing to open individual accounts. The General Ledger shows the transaction entries for all accounts on one register.

Entering transactions in the General Ledger is more complicated than entering them in the individual account registers. The advantage is the General Ledger provides a more comprehensive view of the transactions you have entered in all your accounts.

The General Ledger defaults to showing only the previous month of transactions. This is changeable by using the Date Range on the View menu.

The Report Window has a tool bar to access quickly the functions used with reports. The Tool Bar can be hidden or shown by selecting the Toolbar item on the View menu.

Table 21: Report Window Tool Bar

This is where the report or chart you have selected is shown. The properties of this window are editable in two ways. Selecting the Options button on the toolbar lets you edit what the report is showing and which accounts the information is drawn from. Selecting Edit -> Style Sheets... lets you select the properties of the web page that displays your report.

The report is able to act like a web browser if your report contains links to external web pages. The toolbar buttons allow you to move back and forward through web pages. It will also open account information in the register window when you click on links contained in the report.

You can also save your report to a file and print the report through the toolbar buttons.

The Scheduled Transaction Editor is used to create and edit transactions that are to be added to the register in an automated way. This is combined with the Since Last Run druid to review and enter the transactions.

The Reconcile Window is used to reconcile bank statements to GnuCash accounts. It provides access to various GnuCash functions to make it easy to enter and update account information during the reconciliation.

The Reconcile Window is accessed in the Account Tree Window by going to Actions -> Reconcile... (menu shortcut Ctrl-R). In the Account Register Window it is accessed by going to Actions -> Reconcile...

Figure ? shows an Reconcile Window.

Table 22 describes the components of the Reconcile Window.

The Price Editor is used to track the value of currency, mutual fund and stock type accounts. It provides a unified interface to updating the values of these commodities and is able to update manually or through online quotes.

Each entry in the editor shows a record of a commodity price:

To add a new price, click on Add, and enter the details of the price into the dialog box. To edit an existing price, select the price in the price list, click the Edit button, and edit the figures.

To remove just one price, select the price and click the Remove button. If you want to remove all prices older than a certain time, click on the Remove Old... button and enter the details in the dialog box.

To support online quotations for a particular stock or mutual fund account, you must first enable online price quoting and select a price source. This is described in detail in the To Create a New Account section of Setting up And Editing Accounts. Once online quotes are enabled, you can update prices for your stocks and mutual funds by clicking the Get Quotes button.

The Commodity Editor is used to create and edit commodities that are used by mutual fund and stock type accounts. It also shows the details of National Currencies that are used by GnuCash.

Each entry in the editor shows the details used by the commodity:

To add a new commodity, click on Add, and enter the details of the commodity into the New Currency/Security dialog box. To edit an existing commodity, select the commodity from the Commodities list, click the Edit button, and edit the New Currency/Security dialog box. To remove a commodity, select the commodity and click the Remove button.

To show the details for National Currencies click the Show National Currencies checkbox.

The Financial Calculator is used to calculate compound interest. It provides a way of entering four of the five parameters of a compound interest calculation and then calculating the remaining figure.

The calculator is split into two panes. The left pane has five fields with a Calculate button and a Clear button. The Calculate button is used to select the figure to calculate. The Clear button is used to clear any amount in the field.

The right pane contains buttons to select what sort of payments and compounding is used for the left pane calculations.

Examples of using the Financial Calculator are given in the Tutorial and Concepts Guide.

Find Transactions is used to search for transactions in GnuCash and display the results in a register window. The title bar of the Find Transactions dialog contains 'Search For...' and the first line of the dialog has 'Split Search'. In other search dialogs used in GnuCash the first line contains a different description but the same basic layout.

To open the Find Transactions dialog in the Account Tree Window go to the Tools menu and select Find Transactions or type menu shortcut Ctrl-F. To open the Find Transactions dialog in the Account Register Window go to the Edit menu and select Find... or type menu shortcut F6.

There are two panes in the search dialog. The top pane contains the Search Criteria buttons and the bottom pane contains the Type of Search selection.

There are two buttons in the top of the Search Criteria pane. The left button allows you to add another criteria row to search for multiple criteria. The existing criteria row needs to be completed before adding a new row. The right button is used to Search for items where all criteria are met or Search for items where any criteria are met. The all criteria are met search requires all of the criteria rows to have at least one match. The any criteria are met search requires only one of the criteria rows to be matched.

The criteria row is used to combine different criteria buttons. The following table describes the possible button combinations (regex means regular expression search);

Table 28: Search criteria buttons.

The Account button performs a search where the accounts selected in the Choose Accounts dialog will both be searched individually for results. This means that a match in any of the selected accounts will either be displayed (matches any account) or discarded (matches no account).

The All Accounts button performs a search where accounts selected in the Choose Accounts dialog will only return results that match in both accounts.

There are four selections in the Type of Search pane. When a new search is started only the New Search button is selectable. The other buttons become selectable only when the Search Results register window is visible.

The General Information tab is used to access the basic information about the account. It provides a way of connecting the account to stock information if it is one of the currency, mutual fund or stock account types. It can also be flagged as a Tax Related or Placeholder account.

There are five panes in this tab. Below the panes are checkboxes to mark the account as Tax Related and a Placeholder account. The Tax Related checkbox means that this account has been flagged to be included in Tax Exports. This flag should only be set for Income and Expense type accounts. The Placeholder checkbox means this account is not used for transaction data. This checkbox is used to enable a hierarchy or chart of accounts to be setup.

The top pane contains the Account Information.

The next pane contains a list of Account Types. Select a type from the descriptions in the Types of GnuCash Accounts section.

The next pane contains an account tree to choose a Parent Account. To create a new account tree select New top level account. If the parent account is a certain type, then several of the choices in Account Type become out. For example if the Parent Account is Assets then Equity, Expense and Income become This is to help maintain a proper account structure for the Chart of Accounts.

The next pane is the Price Quote Source pane.

Note: The set of steps needed to properly enable online quote updating with the Price Editor are;

If you wish to update price quotes from the command line, you can do so by the following command;

gnucash --add-price-quotes <gnucash-file-name>

Table 30 Code List for European Markets

Table 31: Pseudo-symbols that can be used for TIAA-CREF quotes

The last pane is the Notes pane. This is used for any additional notes about the account.

The Opening Balance tab is visible only when creating a new account. It is used to record the beginning balance for an account. This allows it to be used for two different scenarios. If using GnuCash for the first time to record transactions, it can be used as a beginning balance. If the accounts in use are closed at the end of a period and new accounts are created, it is used to close and carry balances forward.

There are three panes in this tab. The top pane contains the Balance Information.

The next pane is the Transfer Type pane.

The last pane is the Transfer Account pane. Select the account to use for opening balances from the list of accounts in this pane.

The Reconcile Information dialog is used to indicate the date the statement ends on and what the starting and ending balance of the statement is. The Include Subaccounts checkbox is used if two or more accounts are used to track a single bank account. The Enter Interest Payment button is used to add a transfer to the accounts for an interest payment. If selected a dialog will be displayed to add the payment to the account.

There are three panes in the Interest Payment dialog. At the bottom is a button called No Auto Interest Payments for this Account which will cancel the dialog. The top pane contains the Payment Information.

The next pane contains a list of accounts for the Payment From account. If the payment is for a credit or loan account then usually this would be from an Expense account. If the payment is for a checking or savings account then usually this would be from an Income account. The Show Income/Expense checkbox shows or hides the Income and Expense accounts.

The next pane contains the Reconcile Account. This shows the account that the interest payment will be transferred to or from.

The parts of the Reconcile Window are described in the Tool Windows section of GnuCash Windows. This window is used to open the account and to add transaction information to the account in order to reconcile the account to the bank statement.

The set of unreconciled transactions in the Funds In and Funds Out panes can be changed by using the menus and toolbar to access the account and transaction information. If you wish to postpone the reconciliation until later use the Reconcile -> Postpone menu item (menu shortcut Ctrl-P).

Select each unreconciled transaction matching a statement transaction so a green tick appears in the R column. The Balance pane changes to reflect each selected transaction until the Ending Balance equals the Reconciled Balance and the Difference is zero. Once this is done select the Finish button or Finish on the Reconcile menu (menu shortcut Ctrl-F) to finish the reconcile process.

GnuCash uses the Stock Split druid to record stock splits. This provides a way of entering the details of the stock split and also any change in stock price or cash disbursement as a result of the stock split.

The Stock Split druid is accessed by going to Actions -> Stock Split...

The Stock Split druid opens with a screen that briefly describes what this druid does. The three buttons at the very bottom of the screen will not change while using the druid.

The next screen allows you to select a Stock Account. Select an account from the list to record a stock split or merger.

The next screen lets you set the Stock Split Details. The top part of the screen contains details used in creating the stock split transaction.

The bottom part of the screen contains details used to record a price for the split (optional).

The next screen lets you enter a transaction for a cash disbursement (Cash In Lieu) as a result of the stock split (optional).

The last screen gives you a list of three choices to finish the druid.

You should now have successfully entered the Stock Split or Merger.

The register window will look slightly different depending on the style options you have chosen. The following describes entering transactions in the basic ledger style. The cursor is placed in the date field by default when the register window is opened.

The method described here uses the Transfer Funds Window to enter a single transaction. This is mainly used as a quick way to enter a single transaction without opening the account registers. To enter multiple transactions it is recommended to use the register directly.

The Scheduled Transaction Editor is used to access the list of scheduled transactions and edit or remove them. It also provides a calendar which lists upcoming scheduled transactions. Clicking on the calendar view and hovering over any date will pop up a small dialog that shows the transactions scheduled for that day. The yellow highlight in the calendar indicates which days have scheduled transactions. To dismiss the hover dialog click once more.

The Scheduled Transaction Editor is accessed by going to Actions -> Scheduled Transactions -> Scheduled Transaction Editor. Selecting a transaction from the list and pressing Edit or pressing New will bring up the Edit Scheduled Transaction dialog.

The Edit Scheduled Transaction dialog is described in the Tool Windows section of this help. This section will describe how to add a new transaction manually.

The Since Last Run druid is run automatically when GnuCash is started. It is used to enter into the register any transactions that are due to be automatically entered. The run on GnuCash start can be altered in the preferences. To run the Since Last Run druid manually go to Actions -> Scheduled Transactions -> Since Last Run...

The Since Last Run druid will automatically skip any screens that have no transactions. The following describes every possible screen the druid will show. The three buttons at the very bottom of the screen will not change while using the druid.

The first screen shows Transaction Reminders page. This lists scheduled transactions that have been set to give a reminder a number of days in advance. The screen contains three columns. The first column contains the name of the scheduled transaction and the date it is due. The second column contains the Frequency of the scheduled transaction. The third column has the number of Days Away the transaction is due to be entered. To create any transactions in the list instead of just being reminded, select the date line. This will add it to the list of transactions on the To-Create Transaction Preparation page.

The next screen shows the Auto-Created Transactions Notification page. This lists scheduled transactions that have been set to be automatically created and notify when they are created. Each transaction is presented in a register view that shows the details of the splits in the transaction.

The next screen shows the To-Create Transaction Preparation page. This lists scheduled transactions that are due to be entered in the register. This screen is divided into three panes. The top left pane contains the list of transactions due to be automatically entered. The top right pane allows you to change the Disposition and has a read only view of the Variables used to create the transaction. The bottom pane contains a read only view of the transactions due to be entered.

The next screen shows the Created Transaction Review page. This screen displays the list of transactions about to be created and allows for final changes to be made. The list is presented in a register view that shows the details of the splits in the transaction. This is editable in the same way transactions are able to be edited in the register.

The last screen shows the Obsolete Scheduled Transactions page. This screen displays a list of scheduled transactions that are able to be deleted as the schedule is completed. Select the ones to be removed.

The Since Last Run druid has now added the scheduled transactions to the register.

This druid creates a loan repayment scheduled transaction. When used to setup a scheduled transaction, the druid creates a variable formula so that the compounding interest is correctly calculated. To start this druid manually go to Actions -> Scheduled Transactions -> Mortgage and Loan Repayment...

The Mortgage and Loan Repayment druid opens with a screen that briefly describes what this druid does. The three buttons at the very bottom of the screen will not change while using the druid.

The next screen allows you to enter the basic loan information. This is usually the information provided by the bank when loan and disclosure documents are given to the borrower. Here you can also setup an account that the scheduled transaction will use to enter the payment transaction.

The next screen is used to set escrow, insurance and tax options for the loan. It is mainly used for mortgage payments. When each of the options here is set, this enables additional pages in the druid to setup those portions of the payments. All of the pages will be described here, even though some may not show if that option is not chosen.

The next screen is used to setup the details of the scheduled transaction for the Loan Repayment.

The next screen is used to setup the details of the scheduled transaction for the Tax payment.

The next screen is used to setup the details of the scheduled transaction for the Insurance payment.

The next screen is used to setup the details of the scheduled transaction for the PMI payment.

The next screen is used to setup the details of the scheduled transaction for the Other Expense payment.

The last screen gives you a list of three choices to finish the druid.

You should now have the Mortgage or Loan Repayment scheduled transaction setup.

The General Reports includes the Tax Report and TXF Export, the Account Summary and the Transaction Reports and also the reports in the Sample & Custom menu.

Note 1: For this to work, the user has to segregate taxable and non taxable income to different accounts, as well as deductible and non deductible expenses. The Tax Information dialog is used for this. To access the Tax Information dialog go to Edit -> Tax Options. The user also must set the TXF category of each tax related account. The Tax Information dialog is described in the Setting Tax Options section.

The Assets & Liabilities reports includes the Balance Sheet report, Investment reports and the Net Worth report.

The Income & Expense reports includes the Cash Flow and Profit & Loss reports.

The Business Reports includes Customer and Vendor Reports and Printable Invoices as well as Aging reports.