# Tools & Assistants

There are many specialized Tools used in &app;. These tools enable access to the enhanced functionality in &app;. These tools are accessed via the Tools option from any window that displays a Tools menu. Several of these tools may not be displayed depending on if your software was not configured to support Online banking, or the tools appropriate for the current window.

## Find

The &app; Find assistant can be used to find transactions or to perform business related research on your data file.

### Find Transaction

Find Transaction is used to search for transactions in &app; and display the results in a register window. To open the Find Transaction dialog in Split Search mode, you can type the keyboard shortcut Ctrl f.

Exactly which transactions are searched depends on where you invoke the tool from. If you start from the main accounts hierarchy page, all transactions will be searched. If you start from an individual account register, only transactions in that account will be searched. And if you filter the transactions in a register using View Filter By... , then only transactions in that account and shown by the filter will be searched.

The first row of the Find Transaction dialog indicates that you are performing a Split Search.

There are two panes in the Find Transaction 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 in the Search Criteria pane is used to combine different criteria buttons (see table tool-find-bttns for a comprehensive list of combinations)

In the Type of Search pane there are five selections. The first option is always enabled, the following three are available when you invoke the Find... option from a register window or after performing the first Find if the Find... command was invoked from any other window. Last option is available only for Business search.

New Search

- Perform a new transaction search

Refine current search

- Search within the results of the previous search

Add results to current search

- Search based on the first set of criteria or the new criteria

Delete results from current search

- Discard any results that match the previous search results

Search only active data

- Search only if data are marked as active. This selector is greyed out for the Split Search as it is meaningful only for business related search

When selecting search criteria keep in mind that criteria are applied to individual splits or fields in transactions, and that the entire transaction is included in the results. There is no visual indication in the results to indicate which split or field met the search criteria.

When search criteria are selected, you can press the Find button. You will be presented with the search results in a new register tab.

Press the Close button to close the Find Transaction dialog.

### Search criteria buttons - Split Search

Button 1 | Button 2 | Button 3 | Button 4 | Button 5 | Button 6 | Button 7 | Button 8
Description The Description, Memo, Number are common to all lines in a transaction. | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex regex means regular expression text search as used in various computer programs such as Perl
does not match regex
Memo | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Number | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Action | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Notes | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Date Posted | is before | Date selection field | Remove row |  |  |  |
is before or on
is on
is not on
is after
is on or after
Value | has credits or debits | less than | Amount entry field | Remove row |  |  |
less than or equal to
equal to
not equal to
greater than
greater than or equal to
has credits | less than
less than or equal to
equal to
not equal to
greater than
greater than or equal to
has debits | less than
less than or equal to
equal to
not equal to
greater than
greater than or equal to
Shares | is less than | Amount entry field | Remove row |  |  |  |
is less than or equal to
equals
does not equal to
is greater than
is greater than or equal to
Share Price | is less than | Amount entry field | Remove row |  |  |  |
is less than or equal to
equals
is not equal to
is greater than
is greater than or equal to
Reconcile The Reconcile option applies the selected criteria to each line of a transaction individually. Each transaction line may have only one of the indicated values, but there is often a mix of values within a complete transaction, so companion lines may not meet the selected criteria. See separate note defining status values. For a detailed description of transaction statuses see trans-stts | is | Not Cleared | Cleared | Reconciled | Frozen | Voided | Remove row
is not
Balanced | is | set true | Remove row |  |  |  |
is not
Account The Account option 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). | matches any account | Choose Accounts | Remove row |  |  |  |
matches no accounts
All Accounts The All Accounts option performs a search where accounts selected in the Choose Accounts dialog will only return results that match in both accounts. | matches all accounts | Choose Accounts | Remove row |  |  |  |

#### Explanations of the Criteria

The Reconcile criterion deserves some more explanation. Think of the selected reconciliation status buttons (Not Cleared, Cleared, and so on) as a single group, joined with a logical “or”. In other words, the selection “is ” or “is not” applies to the “or” of the selected status buttons. The buttons which are left unselected are simply ignored. (It’s not the same as saying the reconciliation status must not be one of these.)

For example: if you select Reconcile is Cleared Reconciled, that means you’re saying “I want all transactions which contain cleared splits OR reconciled splits” (imagine an invisible “OR” between all the selected status buttons). It’s the same as selecting Reconcile is Cleared, then adding another search criterion with the Add button, then on the new line selecting Reconcile is Reconciled, and finally selecting Search for items where any criteria are met. In either case, &app; will show you exactly the same set of transactions.

### Find Customer, Invoice, Job, Vendor, Bill, Employee, Expense Voucher

The business find assistant is used to search for business related items (Customer, Invoice, Job, Vendor, Bill, Employee, Expense Voucher). To open the business search dialog select the desired item to Find from the Business Customer/Vendor/Employee submenus.

The titlebar and the first row of the assistant dialog reports the item type you are searching for: Customer, Invoice, Job, Vendor, Bill, Employee, Expense Voucher.

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

#### Search Criteria section

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 in the Search Criteria pane is used to combine different criteria buttons (see tables tool-find-cstmr, tool-find-nvc, tool-find-jb, tool-find-vndr, tool-find-bll, tool-find-mply tool-find-vx for a comprehensive list of combinations)

#### Type of Search section

In the Type of Search pane there are five selections. The first and alst options are always selectable while the following three are available only when you perform the first search by setting some search criteria and pressing the Find button.

New Search

- Perform a new search

Refine current search

- Search within the results of the previous search

Add results to current search

- Search based on the first set of criteria or the new criteria

Delete results from current search

- Discard any results that match the previous search results

Search only active data

- Search only if data are marked as active.

#### The rest of the search dialog

When search criteria are selected, you can press the Find button. You will be presented with the list of search results in the same Find dialog.

Aside the results, &app; gives you some buttons to manage the highlighted result.

In the bottom right of the Find dialog there is a button that allows to create a New business item.

Press the Close button to close the Find assistant dialog.

#### List of search criteria buttons

#### Search criteria buttons - Customer Search

Button 1 | Button 2 | Button 3 | Button 4 | Button 5 | Button 6 | Button 7 | Button 8
Company Name | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Customer ID | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Billing Contact | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Shipping Contact | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex

#### Search criteria buttons - Invoice Search

Button 1 | Button 2 | Button 3 | Button 4 | Button 5 | Button 6 | Button 7 | Button 8
Invoice ID | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Company Name | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Date Opened | is before | Date selection field | Remove row |  |  |  |
is before or on
is on
is not on
is after
is on or after
Is Posted? | is | set true | Remove row |  |  |  |
is not
Date Posted | is before | Date selection field | Remove row |  |  |  |
is before or on
is on
is not on
is after
is on or after
Is Paid? | is | set true | Remove row |  |  |  |
is not
Billing ID | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Invoice Notes | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Invoice Owner | is | Customer | Criteria entry field | Select... | Remove row |  |
Vendor
Employee
Job
is not | Customer
Vendor
Employee
Job

#### Search criteria buttons - Job Search

Button 1 | Button 2 | Button 3 | Button 4 | Button 5 | Button 6 | Button 7 | Button 8
Job Name | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Job Number | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Billing ID | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Only Active? | is | set true | Remove row |  |  |  |
is not
Owner's Name | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex

#### Search criteria buttons - Vendor Search

Button 1 | Button 2 | Button 3 | Button 4 | Button 5 | Button 6 | Button 7 | Button 8
Company Name | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Vendor ID | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Billing Contact | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex

#### Search criteria buttons - Bill Search

Button 1 | Button 2 | Button 3 | Button 4 | Button 5 | Button 6 | Button 7 | Button 8
Bill ID | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Company Name | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Due Date | is before | Date selection field | Remove row |  |  |  |
is before or on
is on
is not on
is after
is on or after
Date Opened | is before | Date selection field | Remove row |  |  |  |
is before or on
is on
is not on
is after
is on or after
Is Posted? | is | set true | Remove row |  |  |  |
is not
Date Posted | is before | Date selection field | Remove row |  |  |  |
is before or on
is on
is not on
is after
is on or after
Is Paid? | is | set true | Remove row |  |  |  |
is not
Billing ID | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Bill Notes | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Bill Owner | is | Customer | Criteria entry field | Select... | Remove row |  |
Vendor
Employee
Job
is not | Customer
Vendor
Employee
Job

#### Search criteria buttons - Employee Search

Button 1 | Button 2 | Button 3 | Button 4 | Button 5 | Button 6 | Button 7 | Button 8
Employee Name | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Employee Username | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Employee ID | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex

#### Search criteria buttons - Expense Voucher Search

Button 1 | Button 2 | Button 3 | Button 4 | Button 5 | Button 6 | Button 7 | Button 8
Voucher ID | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Employee Name | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Due Date | is before | Date selection field | Remove row |  |  |  |
is before or on
is on
is not on
is after
is on or after
Date Opened | is before | Date selection field | Remove row |  |  |  |
is before or on
is on
is not on
is after
is on or after
Is Posted? | is | set true | Remove row |  |  |  |
is not
Date Posted | is before | Date selection field | Remove row |  |  |  |
is before or on
is on
is not on
is after
is on or after
Is Paid? | is | set true | Remove row |  |  |  |
is not
Billing ID | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Voucher Notes | contains | Criteria entry field | Is entry Case Insensitive? | Remove row |  |  |
matches regex
does not match regex
Voucher Owner | is | Customer | Criteria entry field | Select... | Remove row |  |
Vendor
Employee
Job
is not | Customer
Vendor
Employee
Job

## Since Last Run Assistant

The Since Last Run assistant is run automatically when &app; is started. It is used to enter into the register any transactions that are due to be automatically entered (see trans-sched). The run on &app; start can be altered in the Scheduled Transactions tab of the &app; Preferences. To run the Since Last Run assistant manually, go to Actions Scheduled Transactions Since Last Run...

In the Since Last Run assistant window you can see three columns:

Transaction

- The name assigned in the Scheduled Transaction Editor that identifies the scheduled transaction.

State

- The state column of the scheduled transaction can be one of the following:

  Click on the state field in the row of a transaction to change its state (this option is available only if the state field is not empty)

  Ignored

- If a scheduled transaction is being displayed, either to be created or as a reminder, the user can set the status to Ignored to skip this event. The scheduled transaction will not be entered in the register and the next reminder for this scheduled transaction will be the next occurrence. For instance, if you have a scheduled transaction set up with a reminder to transfer $500 at the end of the month to your savings account but you bought yourself a computer this month and don’t have the money for this month’s transfer then you would set the status to Ignored.

Postponed

- If a scheduled transaction has been listed with a status To-create but you want to hold it and not have it entered to your register yet, then you can set it to Postponed.

Reminder

- You are n days from the scheduled transaction due date. The number of days n to remind in advance, is set either in the &app; Preferences Scheduled Transactions tab or in the Overview tab of the Scheduled Transaction Editor.

To-create

- This scheduled transaction will be automatically created when you press OK.

Empty

- An empty field means that no operations are pending for the scheduled transaction.

At the bottom of the window there are two buttons:

- The Cancel button is used to exit the Since Last Run window without creating the transactions scheduled to be entered.

- The Ok button closes the Since Last Run window and applies the pending operations.

At the bottom right of the Since Last Run window there is also an option that allows to Review created transactions. If this option is enabled when there are one or more transactions To-create, pressing OK will open a register window in which are shown the details of the scheduled transactions splits entered automatically by &app;.

## Mortgage & Loan Repayment Assistant

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

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

- The Cancel button is used to exit the assistant and cancel creating the scheduled transaction. Any selections you have made in this assistant up to this point will be lost.

- The Back button will bring up the previous screen so you can change a selection made on that screen.

- The Forward button will bring up the next screen so you can continue though the assistant.

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.

- Loan Account: Choose an account for the loan payment transactions or use New... to setup a new account for the transactions.

- Loan Amount: Enter the amount of the loan.

- Interest Rate: Enter the loan interest rate.

- Type: Choose the type of loan. If an adjustable rate is used the frequency screen is enabled.

- Interest Rate Change Frequency: Choose the frequency for the rate change and the start date of the rate change.

- Start Date: Choose the date the loan is starting on.

- Length: Enter the length of the loan.

- Months Remaining: This should be automatically calculated. Choose how many months are remaining on the loan.

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 assistant 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.

- ... utilize an escrow account for payments?: This selection enables the use of an account setup for tracking escrow payments. If the mortgage or loan uses an escrow account to pay taxes, insurance, etc then setup an account here.

- ... pay "Taxes"?: adds an additional page to setup a scheduled transaction to pay taxes.

- ... pay "Insurance"?: adds an additional page to setup a scheduled transaction to pay insurance payments.

- ... pay "PMI"?: adds an additional page to setup a scheduled transaction to pay PMI payments.

- ... pay "Other Expense"?: adds an additional page to setup a scheduled transaction to pay other expenses.

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

- Transaction Memo: The name entered here will be used as the name for the scheduled transaction, the description of the scheduled transaction and the memo.

- Payment Amount: Shows the variable used to calculate the payment amount.

- Payment From: Choose an account to pay the loan amount from.

- Principal To: Choose an account to transfer the principal part of the loan to.

- Interest To: Choose an account to transfer the interest part of the loan to.

- Remainder to: Choose an account to transfer the rest of the payment amount to.

- Repayment Frequency: Select the Frequency and start date for loan repayments.

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

- Transaction Memo: The name entered here will be used as the name for the scheduled transaction, the description of the scheduled transaction and the memo.

- Amount: Enter the payment amount.

- Payment From: Choose an account to pay the tax amount from.

- Payment To: Choose an account to transfer the tax payment to.

- Repayment Frequency: Select the Frequency and start date for tax payments.

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

- Transaction Memo: The name entered here will be used as the name for the scheduled transaction, the description of the scheduled transaction and the memo.

- Amount: Enter the payment amount.

- Payment From: Choose an account to pay the insurance amount from.

- Payment To: Choose an account to transfer the insurance payment to.

- Repayment Frequency: Select the Frequency and start date for insurance payments.

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

- Transaction Memo: The name entered here will be used as the name for the scheduled transaction, the description of the scheduled transaction and the memo.

- Amount: Enter the payment amount.

- Payment From: Choose an account to pay the PMI amount from.

- Payment To: Choose an account to transfer the PMI payment to.

- Repayment Frequency: Select the Frequency and start date for PMI payments.

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

- Transaction Memo: The name entered here will be used as the name for the scheduled transaction, the description of the scheduled transaction and the memo.

- Amount: Enter the payment amount.

- Payment From: Choose an account to pay the other expense amount from.

- Payment To: Choose an account to transfer the other expense payment to.

- Repayment Frequency: Select the Frequency and start date for other expense payments.

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

- The Cancel button is used to exit the assistant and cancel creating a new loan scheduled transaction. Any selections you have made in this assistant up to this point will be lost.

- The Back button will bring up the previous screen so you can change a selection made on that screen.

- The Finish button creates the scheduled transaction.

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

## Recording a Stock Split

Stock splits commonly occur when a company decides its stock price is to expensive for individual investors to buy the stock. Splits have the effect of lowering the price of a single share while keeping the value of shares owned by investors who have already purchased shares.

### Stock Split Assistant

&app; uses the Stock Split assistant 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 assistant is accessed by going to Actions Stock Split....

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

- The Cancel button is used to exit the assistant and cancel entering the stock split information. Any selections you have made in this assistant up to this point will be lost.

- The Back button will bring up the previous screen so you can change a selection made on that screen.

- The Forward button will bring up the next screen so you can continue though the assistant.

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

- Account: Lists the &app; account name for the stock.

- Symbol: The stock symbol for the stock associated with this account.

- Shares: The amount of shares that have been purchased in the account.

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.

- Date: Choose the date of the stock split.

- Share Distribution: Enter the amount of shares gained from the stock split. For a stock merger enter a negative number.

- Description: Enter a description or leave as the default.

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

- New Price: Enter the price of the shares on the day of the stock split.

- Currency: Choose the currency of the shares.

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

- Cash Amount: Enter the amount of the Cash disbursement.

- Memo: Enter a memo or leave as the default.

- Income Account: Choose an Income Account for the disbursement.

- Asset Account: Choose an Asset Account for the disbursement.

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

- The Cancel button is used to exit the assistant and cancel creating the Stock Split transactions. Any selections you have made in this assistant up to this point will be lost.

- The Back button will bring up the previous screen so you can change a selection made on that screen.

- The Finish button creates the transactions for the Stock Split.

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

## HBCI (Online Banking) Setup Assistant

This section is "under construction - any input will be welcome !!".

The HBCI Assistant is used to create and edit data to enable access to Online banking transactions. Currently the best instruction for this process are in the &app; wiki at Setting up OFXDirectConnect in &app; 2. If HBCI Setup does not appear in your Tools menu, verify that you are in an Account Tree or Register tab.

## Price Editor

The Price Editor is used to track/modify the value of a currency, mutual fund and stocks. It provides a unified interface to updating the values of these commodities and is able to update manually or through on-line quotes.

Each entry in the editor shows a record of a security/commodity price(s):

- Security: The Security/commodity being priced. The display is sorted by the exchange that the individual securities are listed on. The list is expanded by clicking on the caret on the left of the name.

- Currency: The currency the price is recorded in.

- Date: The date the price was recorded.

- Source: The source of the commodities price quote. Typically, this will be either user:price-editor, indicating you entered it directly, or Finance::Quote, indicating that it was retrieved from an on-line source by the Finance::Quote module.

- Type: There are several different types of stock price quotes.

  - Bid: Indicates what a specialist dealer is prepared to pay for a stock.

  - Ask: Indicates at what price the dealers are prepared to sell a stock.

  - Last: Indicate the price at which the last trade in that stock/security occurred at. This is the price most commonly quoted in the media.

  - Net Asset Value: Are typically used for mutual funds. They are calculated on the net value of the fund’s assets.

  - Unknown: Use this if the type of price quoted is not known.

- Price: The actual price of the commodity.

### Adding a stock price manually

To add a new price, click on Add, and enter the details of the security and 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 date, click on the Remove Old button and enter the details in the dialog box.

A pop-up will display with the message "Delete all stock prices based upon the criteria below:". Enter the date of the last price you wish to delete.

Two check-boxes are below the date field;

- Delete manually entered prices - If checked, delete manually entered stock prices dated earlier than the specified date. Otherwise only stock prices added by Finance::Quote will be deleted.

- Delete last price for a stock - If checked, delete all prices before the specified date. Otherwise the last stock price dated before the date will be kept and all earlier quotes deleted.

### Configuring for use of the Get Quotes button

To support on-line quotations for a particular stock or mutual fund account, you must first enable on-line price quoting and select a price source in the Security. This is described in detail in invest-stockprice-online3. Once on-line quotes are enabled, and Finance::Quote is installed, you can update prices for your stocks and mutual funds manually by clicking the Get Quotes button.

## Security Editor

The Security 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 &app;.

To show the details for National Currencies click the Show National Currencies check-box at the bottom of the screen.

Each entry in the editor shows the details used by the security/currency:

- Type: Categories for organizing securities. &app; has the following built in:

  - CURRENCY or ISO4317: These are used for national currencies and are not editable with the Security Editor.

  - FUND: Ordinarily used for open-ended mutual funds, i.e., those that one purchases from and sells to only the issuing company and that are priced daily at their net asset value.

  - AMEX, ASX, EUREX, NASDAQ, and NYSE: These represent a few of the exchanges on which stocks, closed-end mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds are traded.

  - Template: This is a reserved word. It will not normally appear in the Security Editor unless you type it in, and if you do it will cause problems. Don't use it.

  If your investment doesn't fit into one of these categories, for example if you trade stocks on the DAX or LSE, you can easily create your own type simply by typing it into the field. The type of security has no meaning to Gnucash (except Template, don't use that!), it's there only to make it easier for you to find the security from the selection lists.

- Symbol: Indicates the symbol or abbreviation for the commodity. This is usually the ticker symbol (for stocks) or other unique abbreviation for the commodity. If the commodity is traded on any public exchange, it is important to use the same identifier used on that exchange. For national currencies the symbol is the ISO-4217 currency code.

- Name: The full name of the commodity is a recognizable name such as US Dollars or IBM Common Stock.

- Code: This is any numeric or alphanumeric code that is used to identify the commodity. The CUSIP code is a unique identifying numeric string that is associated with every stock, bond or mutual fund, and most kinds of traded options, futures and commodities. This code is not required.

- Fraction: This is the smallest traded unit of the commodity, expressed as a fraction of a single nominal unit. This unit is used by &app; accounts as the default fraction for trades in the commodity.

### Adding or Editing a Commodity

To add a new commodity (stock, or mutual fund), click on Add, and enter the details of the commodity into the New Security dialog box. To edit an existing commodity, select the commodity from the Commodities list, click the Edit button, and edit the Edit Security dialog box. To remove a commodity, select the commodity and click the Remove button.

The fields in the New/Edit Security screens are the same as defined for the Security Editor tool-security-edit. Below these fields are the options for Online Quotes.

### Configuring Securities/Currencies for On-Line Retrieval of Prices

To support on-line quotations for a particular stock or mutual fund account, you must first enable on-line price quoting and select a price source in the Security Editor. Online currency quotes require only that the check-box for Online quotes and the timezone be selected, and that the Get Quotes box be checked in the Security Editor.

Detailed instructions are in the section on Creating New Accounts. Online-price-setup

## Loan Repayment Calculator

The Loan Repayment 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.

- Payment Periods: This field is used to select the number of payments you wish to use in the calculation.

- Interest Rate: This field is used for the interest rate percentage.

- Present Value: This field usually contains the amount you have borrowed. It is the base amount you wish to compound.

- Periodic Payment: This field contains the amount that is the payment for the period selected (IE monthly, weekly, etc). If it is for repaying a loan it should be a negative number.

- Future Value: This field contains the final value at the end of the periods above. If we are repaying a loan in full it would be 0.

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

- Compounding: This button allows you to select the interval used if the Discrete Compounding button is selected.

- Payments: This button allows you to select the interval used for the Payment Periods field.

- End of Period Payments: Use this button if the payment is at the end of the period.

- Beginning of Period Payments: Use this button if the payment is at the beginning of the period.

- Discrete Compounding: This button is used where interest is charged at a discrete interval defined by the Compounding button above.

- Continuous Compounding: This button is used when the interest is charged continuously.

- Payment Total: This field shows the total amount paid.

Examples of using the Loan Repayment Calculator are given in the Tutorial and Concepts Guide. &app; Tutorial and Concepts Guide’s Chapter on Loans

## Close Book

The Close Book dialog box is used for “closing the books,”--an accounting process that resets the balances of the income and expense accounts. In this process, income account balances are transferred into an income equity account, while expense account balances are transferred into an expense equity account. You must specify both these accounts, which may be the same. You must also specify the date for the closing transfer.

### Dialog Box Details

The dialog box has the following parts:

- Closing Date: Specify the date for the closing transfer. You can type in a date or choose one from the drop-down.

- Income Total: Specify the account into which the total balance of all income accounts will be transferred. Optionally you can create a new account to receive the transfer using the New button.

- Expense Total: Specify the account into which the total balance of all expense accounts will be transferred. Again, you can optionally create a new account to receive the transfer using the New button.

- Description: Specify the description that will be entered in the closing entry.

### How It Works

&app; closes books by creating one transaction per currency for income accounts, and one transaction per currency for expense accounts. The transactions all use the date selected by the user, and each transaction may contain any number of splits. Each split moves the balance out of one income or expense account. The last split in each closing transaction moves the total offsetting debit/credit balance into the specified equity account.

Each transaction will use the description provided by the user in the Description: entry.

The fact that &app; just uses transactions to close the books makes it very simple to undo a book closing: just delete the closing transactions.

### What It Doesn’t Do

The book closing tool does not delete any accounts or transactions; create any new files; or hide any accounts.

### Necessity

Note that closing the books in &app; is unnecessary. You do not need to zero out your income and expense accounts at the end of each financial period. &app;’s built-in reports automatically handle concepts like retained earnings between two different financial periods.

In fact, closing the books reduces the usefulness of the standard reports because the reports don’t currently understand closing transactions. So from their point of view it simply looks like the net income or expense in each account for a given period was simply zero.

### Conclusion

If you close your books, be prepared to see inaccuracies in the standard reports. On the other hand, you will see current-period income and expense figures in the chart of accounts.