This has the advantage that all parts of the sale event are kept together. This is not compatible with using scrubbing (see Section 9.7.2, “Selling Shares with Automatic Calculation of Capital Gain or Loss Using Lots”). If you may in future use scrubbing on a specific security, save some work later by entering the capital gain/loss splits in a separate transaction now.

When the capital gain/loss splits are combined with the sale splits in one transaction, there are 2 splits for the security account in the same transaction, so the transaction must be entered with the security register in Auto-Split Ledger or Transaction Journal view. One of the splits for the security account is for the sale and the other is for the capital gain or loss. The security account split for the capital gain or loss must be entered with 0 number of shares and 0 price per share to stop the automatic recalculation of these fields.

Account for the profit or loss as coming from an Income:Capital Gains or Expenses:Capital Loss account.

9.7.1.1.1. Combined, Gross Pricing

Table 9.1. Selling Shares Split Scheme, Sale and Capital Gain/Loss Are Combined, Gross Pricing

Account	Number of Shares	Share Price	Total Buy	Total Sell
Assets:Bank ABC			NET_SALE
Assets:Stock:SYMBOL	0	0	GROSS_PROFIT	(Loss)
Expenses:Commission			COMMISSION
Assets:Stock:SYMBOL	−NUM_SHARES	GROSS_SELL_PRICE		GROSS_SALE
Income:Capital Gains			(Loss)	GROSS_PROFIT

Example 9.1. Sale of Shares with Profit, Manual Profit/Loss Calculation, Sale & Profit Combined, Gross Pricing

In this example, we will use the AMZN account created in Section 9.4.2, “Example Stock Account”.

You bought 100 shares of AMZN for $20 per share, then later sell them all for $36 per share with a commission of $75. The split transaction scheme is as follows:

• GROSS_BUY_PRICE is $20 (the original buying price),
• NUM_SHARES is 100,
• GROSS_BUY is $2,000 (the original buying cost),
• GROSS_SALE is $3,600,
• and finally GROSS_PROFIT is $1,600 (GROSS_SALE − GROSS_BUY).

Table 9.2. Selling Shares Split Scheme, Sale & Gain Combined, Gross Pricing

Account	Shares	Price	Buy	Sell
Assets:Bank ABC			3525.00
Assets:Brokerage Account:Stock:AMZN	0	0	1600.00
Expenses:Commission			75.00
Assets:Brokerage Account:Stock:AMZN	−100	36.00		3600.00
Income:Capital Gain (Long Term):AMZN				1600.00

Figure 9.18. Selling Shares, Gain Combined, Gross Pricing

Note

In the above screenshot, it appears there are 2 transactions for Mar. 21, 2006. This is because the register is in Auto-Split Ledger view and there are 2 splits for the register account in the 1 transaction. Transaction Journal view may be clearer. Refer to Section 2.9.3, “Simple vs. Split Transactions”. As there are 2 splits for the register account in the sale transaction, this transaction must be entered in Auto-Split Ledger or Transaction Journal view. It cannot be entered in Basic Ledger view.

Figure 9.19. The Account Tree after the Example of Selling Shares for a Gain

9.7.1.1.2. Combined, Net Pricing

Table 9.3. Selling Shares Split Scheme, Sale and Capital Gain/Loss Are Combined, Net Pricing

Account	Number of Shares	Share Price	Total Buy	Total Sell
Assets:Bank ABC			NET_SALE
Assets:Stock:SYMBOL	0	0	NET_PROFIT	(Loss)
Assets:Stock:SYMBOL	−NUM_SHARES	NET_SELL_PRICE		NET_SALE
Income:Capital Gains			(Loss)	NET_PROFIT

Example 9.2. Sale of Shares with Profit, Manual Profit/Loss Calculation, Sale & Profit Combined, Net Pricing

In this example, we will use the AMZN account created in Section 9.4.2, “Example Stock Account”.

You bought 100 shares of AMZN for $20 per share (including commissions), then later sell them all for $36 per share with a commission of $75. The split transaction scheme is as follows:

• NUM_SHARES is 100,
• NET_BUY_PRICE is $20 (the original buying price),
• NET_BUY is $2,000 (the original buying cost),
• NET_SELL_PRICE is $35.25 (($3600 − $75) / 100)),
• GROSS_SALE is $3,600, NET_SALE is $3,525,
• and finally NET_PROFIT is $1,525 (NET_SALE − NET_BUY).

Table 9.4. Selling Shares Split Scheme, Sale & Gain Combined, Net Pricing

Account	Shares	Price	Buy	Sell
Assets:Bank ABC			3525.00
Assets:Brokerage Account:Stock:AMZN	0	0	1525.00
Assets:Brokerage Account:Stock:AMZN	−100	35.25		3525.00
Income:Capital Gain (Long Term):AMZN				1525.00

Figure 9.20. Selling Shares for Gain using Net Pricing in Transaction Journal View

This is required if using scrubbing to calculate and create capital gain/loss transactions automatically. Otherwise scrubbing will not detect them and will create an incorrectly valued capital gain/loss transaction.

9.7.1.2.1. Separated, Gross Pricing

Table 9.5. Selling Shares Split Scheme, Sale and Capital Gain/Loss Are Separate Transactions, Sale Transaction

Account	Number of Shares	Share Price	Total Buy	Total Sell
Assets:Bank ABC			NET_SALE
Expenses:Commission			COMMISSION
Assets:Stock:SYMBOL	−NUM_SHARES	GROSS_SELL_PRICE		GROSS_SALE

Table 9.6. Selling Shares Split Scheme, Sale and Capital Gain/Loss Are Separate Transactions, Capital Gain/Loss Transaction

Account	Number of Shares	Share Price	Total Buy	Total Sell
Assets:Stock:SYMBOL	0	0	GROSS_PROFIT	(Loss)
Income:Capital Gains			(Loss)	GROSS_PROFIT

Example 9.3. Sale of Shares with Profit, Manual Profit/Loss Calculation, Sale & Profit Separated, Gross Pricing

In this example, we will use the AMZN account created in Section 9.4.2, “Example Stock Account”.

You bought 100 shares of AMZN for $20 per share and commissions $20, then later sell them all for $36 per share with a commission of $75. The split transaction scheme is as follows:

• GROSS_BUY_PRICE is $20 (the original buying price),
• NUM_SHARES is 100,
• GROSS_BUY is $2,000 (the original buying cost),
• GROSS_SALE is $3,600,
• finally GROSS_PROFIT is $1,600 (GROSS_SALE − GROSS_BUY).

Table 9.7. Selling Shares Split Scheme, Sale Transaction, Gross Pricing

Account	Shares	Price	Buy	Sell
Assets:Bank ABC			3525.00
Expenses:Commission			75.00
Assets:Brokerage Account:Stock:AMZN	−100	36.00		3600.00

Table 9.8. Selling Shares Split Scheme, Gain Transaction, Gross Pricing

Account	Shares	Price	Buy	Sell
Assets:Brokerage Account:Stock:AMZN	0	0	1600.00
Income:Capital Gain (Long Term):AMZN				1600.00

Figure 9.21. Selling Shares for Gain Where the Sale and Gain are Recorded in Separate Transactions, in Transaction Journal View

9.7.1.2.2. Separated, Net Pricing

Table 9.9. Selling Shares Split Scheme, Sale and Capital Gain/Loss Are Separate Transactions, Sale Transaction

Account	Number of Shares	Share Price	Total Buy	Total Sell
Assets:Bank ABC			NET_SALE
Assets:Stock:SYMBOL	−NUM_SHARES	NET_SELL_PRICE		NET_SALE

Table 9.10. Selling Shares Split Scheme, Sale and Capital Gain/Loss Are Separate Transactions, Capital Gain/Loss Transaction

Account	Number of Shares	Share Price	Total Buy	Total Sell
Assets:Stock:SYMBOL	0	0	NET_PROFIT	(Loss)
Income:Capital Gains			(Loss)	NET_PROFIT

Example 9.4. Sale of Shares with Profit, Manual Profit/Loss Calculation, Sale & Profit Separated, Net Pricing

In this example, we will use the AMZN account created in Section 9.4.2, “Example Stock Account”.

You bought 100 shares of AMZN for $20 per share (including commissions), then later sell them all for $36 per share with a commission of $75. In the split transaction scheme is as follows:

• NUM_SHARES is 100,
• NET_BUY_PRICE is $20 (the original buying price),
• NET_BUY is $2,000 (the original buying cost),
• NET_SELL_PRICE is $35.25 (($3600 − $75) / 100)),
• GROSS_SALE is $3,600, NET_SALE is $3,525,
• and finally NET_PROFIT is $1,525 (NET_SALE − NET_BUY).

Table 9.11. Selling Shares Split Scheme, Sale Transaction, Net Pricing

Account	Shares	Price	Buy	Sell
Assets:Bank ABC			3525.00
Assets:Brokerage Account:Stock:AMZN	−100	35.25		3525.00

Table 9.12. Selling Shares Split Scheme, Gain Transaction, Net Pricing

Account	Shares	Price	Buy	Sell
Assets:Brokerage Account:Stock:AMZN	0	0	1525.00
Income:Capital Gain (Long Term):AMZN				1525.00

Figure 9.22. Selling Shares for Gain Where the Sale and Gain are Recorded in Separate Transactions, in Transaction Journal View

Wikipedia includes the following definition of a lot:

GnuCash has a built-in lot management facility that can be used to keep track of capital gains or losses resulting from security sales. Buy and sell transactions are put into lots for the purpose of calculating the cost of the sale. More specifically, a lot is used to link particular buy and sell transaction splits. Lots can be automatically or manually created and linked. Capital gain or loss can be automatically calculated and transaction(s) created for the difference between the sale value and the cost of the securities sold. GnuCash refers to this process as scrubbing.

The term scrub is used because security accounts need to be cleaned after sales to ensure the difference between the cost paid for securities, and value received from selling them, is accounted for as capital gain or loss. If the capital gain/loss is not correct, the Trial Balance bottom line total debits will not balance to total credits. To see the Trial Balance, select Reports → Income & Expense → Trial Balance.

	Note
	If you make an error, you can delete the lot(s) and capital gain/loss transaction(s) and retry. Ensure you delete the lot, or at least unlink sale transactions from the lot, before you delete a capital gain/loss transaction. Otherwise, the Lots in Account screen will recreate the capital gain/loss transaction when you select the lot.

If you are not familiar with FIFO, LIFO or Average costing, please see Wikipedia FIFO and LIFO accounting and Average cost method.

If you are not familiar with the difference between GnuCash transactions and splits, please see Section 2.9.3, “Simple vs. Split Transactions”.

The GnuCash lot management facility can be a useful feature, reducing manual calculation, especially if dividends have been reinvested over years and there are many different costs involved. It can automatically link buy transactions to sell transactions using FIFO cost method and one can manually link specific buy transactions to sell transactions in order to use LIFO. Advanced Portfolio Report basis costs and gains/losses will agree with the costs and gain/loss transactions created by scrubbing if either the FIFO or LIFO cost methods are used.

The Lots in Account SSSS window, where SSSS is a security account, is used to manually or automatically link security transaction splits to lots and create capital gain/loss transactions to account for the difference between the costs of buying a security and the value received by selling it.

To open the Lots in Account window, open the security account register, then select Actions → View Lots.

Figure 9.23. Selling Shares - Capital Gains - Lots in Account window

An image of the Lots in Account window.

Refer to the Help Manual, Chapter 8 Tools & Assistants, Lots in Account for details of the Lots in Account screen elements.

Using the lot management facility for the automatic calculation of capital gain or loss typically follows these steps:

Before using this feature, ensure you have read Section 9.7.2.8, “Considerations”.

This functionality allows the manual linking of specific buy and sell transactions. It may be used in the case where a user wishes to use a different cost method than the automatic linking method (FIFO). Effectively, if one wishes the cost basis and capital gains in the Advanced Portfolio Report to be consistent with the capital gains transactions created by scrubbing, manual lot creation only needs to be used when using LIFO or “sale of designated lots” (the same thing for securities as far as US personal tax law is concerned). This is because the scrub function can automatically do FIFO linking so there is no need to do it manually and scrubbing cannot be used for average costing. See Example 9.5, “Manual Lot Creation and Linking”.

	Note
	Do not do this unless you are using FIFO or LIFO to cost sales. See Section 9.7.2.8, “Considerations”.

GnuCash can automatically calculate and create security sale capital gain/loss transactions. Lots are used to link buy transaction splits with sell transaction splits so the correct cost of the securities sold can be determined. GnuCash will use any existing lots, and create new lots for any buy transaction splits not already linked to a lot. Buy and sell transaction splits are linked to lots using FIFO method.

See:

The capital gain/loss transaction(s) created by scrubbing uses an automatically created generic Orphaned Gains-CCC account (where CCC is the security currency) because GnuCash doesn't know which capital gain or loss account should be used. After scrubbing, the user should edit the Orphaned Gains-CCC transaction split to re-assign the income account to a more meaningful income (or expense) gain or loss account (for example, Income:Capital Gain (Long Term):IBM).

See Example 9.9, “Changing the Orphaned Gains-CCC to Gain/Loss Account”.

Running a Trial Balance report ( Reports → Income & Expense → Trial Balance ) after creating capital gain/loss transactions, is a basic check that capital gains/losses are correctly accounting for the difference between the cost paid for securities, and value received from selling them. At the end of the report, total debits should equal total credits.

Tip

A Trial Balance may not balance due to some other problem. To determine if the cause of an imbalance is from incorrectly accounting for capital gain/loss: If necessary, temporarily change the date of the sell transaction and the capital gain/loss transaction, so they are the only transactions for a particular date, then run the Trial Balance as at the day before. If the Trial Balance is still out by the same amount, it is not the capital gain/loss that is causing the problem. If you find a prior out of balance Trial Balance, keep running the Trial Balance report with different dates until you find the date it starts being out of balance. Temporarily change the transaction dates for each transaction on the problem date to the following day, then change the dates back to the correct date 1 at a time, running the Trial Balance each time, until you identify the problem transaction. When you change the date of a security sell transaction, you also need to change the date of the corresponding capital gain transaction as it is only the sum of these that will balance in the Trial Balance.

There are some points that should be considered before using the lot management facility.