Budgeting prototype

[Derek Neighbors]

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marthter wrote:
| Yes, you're right, we're agreeing here.  That is why I listed those as
| two separate design questions that need to be answered (see (1) and (2)
| below).  I'm not debating whether the accounts to which you budget
| should exist (I agree they should), just whether a single budget item
| should necessarily be ONLY to a single account (I agree, NORMALLY they
| would, but it shouldn't FORCE that to be the case).

I apologize for the last mail being HTML and HORRIBLY formated to
delineate comments.  I have been playing with packaging Thunderbird mail
~ client and was doing some screenshots for someone and was showing how
to turn html mail off and accidently saved mine as turned on.. (oh the
embarrassment....)

Again, I will be happy if there is a "mirror/copy" accounts function.  I
don't want to have to rekey all my accounts and I suspect if most of
your are 1 to 1 neither will you. :)

| This elaboration is very illuminating.  These would be good concepts to
| include in the design, or at least design with them in mind for future
| iterations.

It would be nice to have "versioning" supported early even if basic, but
I'm so desperate for budgeting I would take single version if available. :)

| This would be ideal but I think outside the scope of what Gnucash should
| attempt.  And "fixing" my chart of accounts by closing accounts with 5
| years of data is outside what I'd like to attempt, yet, I'd still like
| the flexibility to budget with either focus (the medical/transport focus
| or the him/her focus).

I agree it's outside the scope of "personal finance manager".

| Yes, this sentiment I agree with.  The way it is shaping up, Darin's
| proposal seems flexible enough to handle your way of doing things and my
| hypothetical/obtuse examples too.

Let's be honest it's free software.  We will take the code we can get.
If it's too bothersome, let it be a motivator for someone to fix it. :)
~ That said, I would be more than ecstatic to see Darin's model
implemented.  Even if I dont 100% agree with it.  The old 80/20 rule.  I
like more than 80% of it, I won't quibble about the rest.

| Wow, interesting.  I can't imagine all 8 elements are independent (in
| the algebraic sense).  I mean, you don't have to give an ordered
| octuplet to fully specify which account you are talking about, do you?

Oh it is that sick.  I just had to give a dissertation on our chart of
accounts to internal staff working on implementing Peoplesoft HR and
they were floored... Quick nut shell [OFF TOPIC]

Here are the basic elements and relationships

Fund : Independent
Agency : Strongly filtered down by number of Funds
Org  : Strongly filtered down by agency
Object : Independent
SubObject : Strongly filtered down by Object
Activity : Independent
Function : Independent
ReportingCategory : Strongly filtered down Agency

So yes if you cut a PO, you have to know 8 elements in order to get a PO
to print. For reporting purposes each of those 8 elements have 5
hierarchies as well.  So believe me I will have lots of "opinion" when
it comes to reporting based on school of hard knocks.

I have on my too list, to try to write a scheme report for gnucash and
document the process.  However, I might lean toward writing a DB driver
to read gnucash XML files for GNU Enterprise and then use GNUe Reports
to report off of...

| I think in fact we are pretty close to being on the same page, perhaps
| some terminology is still making it appear the gap is bigger than it
| is.  As you say, this is just my two cents, and more power to whoever
| will take this by the horns and provide something (besides talk) to the
| project.

I didn't think we were ever that far off.  Read: From the beginning I
could live with how Darin proposed to implement, though I may not agree
philosophically that it is the best approach.

Derek Neighbors
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