Moving reconciled transactions

[Olaf Faaland]

It seems to me that altering a reconciled transaction is fundamentally an=
=20
at-your-own-risk activity, and that that being the case, the default action=
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should be to clear the reconciled flag.

I can however imagine a situation where someone has two or more subaccounts=
=20
that (combined) represent a bank account.  One example is a husband and wif=
e=20
that have separate checkbooks, both for account xyz.  Periodically, the one=
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that uses Gnucash enters the transactions from each checkbook's paper ledge=
r=20
into the appropriate subaccount.  The subaccounts let him or her do separat=
e=20
reports, make it easier to be sure the paper ledgers match gnucash, etc.=20=
=20
However, since the two subaccounts both map to the same bank account, they=
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will both be reconciled against the same paper bank statement.  Moving a=20
transaction from one subaccount to the other, it would be reasonable to=20
preserve the reconciled flag.

Since it will be difficult for the user to find the problem later, if they=
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have the wrong assumption at the time they move the tx, I would suggest tha=
t=20
the user be asked what they want, with the default being to clear the flag.

-Olaf


On Saturday 10 August 2002 08:53 pm, David Hampton wrote:
> What is the correct behavior when moving a reconciled transaction to
> another account?  Clear the reconciled flag, or leave it reconciled.  I
> believe it should be the former, but I have a bug report suggesting that
> it should be the latter behavior.  The behavior of gnucash is
> inconsistent.  Moving a transaction via cut/paste clears the
> reconciliation flag; moving by changing the transfer account from a
> register window preserves the flag.
>
> If an account has been reconciled then it must have been reconciled
> against something.  A bank statement, a credit card statement, a
> paycheck stub, a budget... something.  If a transaction is later moved
> out of that account, by definition it can no longer be considered
> reconciled.  Am I off base here?
>
> David