Concepts

What red-ale's words mean and how its books behave.

  • Account typesThe five basic kinds of Account and the Account types red-ale offers (BANK, CASH, ASSET, CREDIT, LIABILITY, STOCK, MUTUAL, CURRENCY, INCOME, EXPENSE, EQUITY, RECEIVABLE, PAYABLE, TRADING), which Account can sit under which, and what each is for.
  • Books and filesA Book is one set of Accounts kept in one file, XML (plain or gzipped) or SQLite. Locks, the journal, backups and retention, Book features, and which storage to choose. Database-server books are not supported.
  • BudgetsA Budget plans an amount per Account for each Budget period. Budget periods, set and unset amounts, natural signs, notes, actuals, estimating from past Transactions, and the budget reports.
  • Business documentsOwners (Customers, Vendors, Employees, Jobs) and their invoices, bills and expense vouchers - Entries, tax tables, billing terms, posting to A/Receivable or A/Payable, payments through Lots, credit notes, and printing an invoice.
  • The chart of accountsThe Account tree under the root Account, which GnuCash calls the chart of accounts - names, full names, placeholders, hidden Accounts, codes and how to lay one out.
  • Closing the books and the accounting periodThe accounting period (fiscal year bounds, kept in the Configuration) and what book.closeBooks does - one closing Transaction per currency for income and for expenses, moved into equity - and why you rarely need it. Not book.close.
  • Coming from GnuCashWhat changes if you know GnuCash - no windows, registers or menus, only methods - and GnuCash's words mapped to red-ale's, how the two share books safely, accounts instead of categories, and where the From GnuCash pages are.
  • Commodities and currenciesA Commodity is anything an Account can hold - a currency or a security - named by namespace and mnemonic, with a smallest unit. The built-in ISO currencies, euro legacy currencies, display symbols and how to add a security.
  • The Configurationred-ale's own settings file, for what GnuCash keeps in preferences and user files, against Book options, which live in the book. Where it is, how to read and change a Setting by path, secrets, and the settings you are likely to want.
  • Dates and time zonesA Date is a calendar day; a timestamp is an instant in UTC. How red-ale stores a posted date, which time zone defines "today" and where a day starts and ends, and how to ask for the accounting period.
  • Double entryEvery Transaction moves value between Accounts and its Split values sum to exactly zero. The accounting equation, debits and credits, and the raw sign red-ale uses for balances.
  • Imbalance, orphans and scrubsWhat the Imbalance-CUR and Orphan-CUR Accounts are, why red-ale refuses an unbalanced Transaction instead of creating them, and how scrub.checkAndRepair puts right a book that already has them.
  • Importing and matchingImporting QIF, CSV and business files in two calls - import.preview builds a proposal and changes nothing, import.apply applies your choices - and how the matcher finds duplicates, scores candidates and learns accounts from import maps.
  • InvestmentsStocks, mutual funds, bonds and fixed assets in the books - one STOCK or MUTUAL Account per holding, shares as amounts, prices in the price database, income Accounts for dividends and interest, and how fees, dividends and returns are recorded.
  • Loans and interestPrincipal, interest, compounding and amortisation; how a loan is kept in the books as a liability, the payment formulas red-ale computes exactly, and the loan assistant as scheduledTransaction.loan. There is no loan calculator.
  • Lots and capital gainsA Lot groups the Splits that buy and then sell one holding. Realised and unrealised gains, cost basis, the FIFO lot policy, the gains Transaction red-ale records, and what stock splits do to lots.
  • Other assets and depreciationCurrent and fixed assets, prepaid items and suspense accounts, and depreciation - why, book and tax depreciation, and the linear, geometric and sum-of-digits schemes - recorded with ordinary Accounts and a scheduled transaction.
  • Prices and exchange ratesThe price database holds the value of one Commodity in another at a time. Prices, direct and indirect lookup, same-day rules and source rank, and fetching quotes from Quote services when the Configuration allows the network.
  • Read-only booksWhy a Book opens read-only - you asked, it declares a Book feature red-ale lacks, it holds content red-ale cannot safely edit, or its SQL schema is not GnuCash 5.17's - what readOnlyReasons says and what to do about each.
  • ReconciliationChecking an Account against a bank statement. Reconcile states, the statement, ticked Splits, the difference that must reach zero, finishing or postponing, and auto-clear. red-ale keeps no reconcile window - the caller carries the ticks.
  • Report scriptsUser reports - how to write your own report as a .rhai script in the Configuration's report directory. The shape of a script (templates, options, render), option types, the query API's main reads, exact Rational arithmetic, the report result's blocks, limits, library modules and load errors.
  • ReportsReport templates and their options, the report result and its HTML export, style sheets, saved report configurations and the Multicolumn View - what red-ale ports from GnuCash, and what you write yourself as a User report.
  • Scheduled transactionsA Scheduled transaction is a Transaction that recurs - a schedule of Recurrences, template Transactions with formulas and variables, and Instances created by Since Last Run. red-ale runs Since Last Run only when asked, as a proposal you apply.
  • Trading accountsWith the book option Use Trading Accounts on, every Transaction that crosses Commodities also records what was bought and sold in TRADING Accounts, so amounts balance per Commodity as well as values. What the option does, and what to expect.
  • Transactions and SplitsA Transaction is a dated, balanced exchange made of two or more Splits, each in one Account. Its dates, description, num, notes, and a Split's memo, action and reconcile state; read-only Transactions.
  • Value and amountA Split has a value, in the Transaction currency, and an amount, in its Account's Commodity. Both are exact rationals; values sum to zero per Transaction. GnuCash's quantity is red-ale's amount.