budgeting

Aaron Peromsik aperomsik@mail.com
Thu, 23 Nov 2000 00:23:56 -0500


> From: James LewisMoss <jimdres@mindspring.com>
> Date: 21 Nov 2000 03:08:01 -0500
> 
> I want my budgeting system ...
> 
> ... to add transactions automatically
> ... to mark transactions as automatically added so I can make sure
> they are ok.
> ... to remind me to add items.

I guess this is as good a place as any to introduce myself... I'm a
Quicken user interested in switching to GnuCash if the right things
happen with respect to scheduled transactions. By day, I'm a CAD 
software developer. I don't have much free time to contribute to GnuCash 
development, but I'll start by joining the discussion and take it from 
there.

Quicken draws a distinction between "budgeting" functionality
and "scheduled transactions." I find the scheduled transactions useful 
as reminders, but I don't use the auto-entry functionality because I 
don't want things entered as paid until I actually mail the check.

On the other hand, having things entered in the register in advance 
would be useful for cash flow management. Currently I duplicate my 
scheduled transactions for the next couple months in a StarOffice 
spreadsheet to help me decide how much money gets transferred from 
savings to checking in time to pay the bills. If Quicken -- or more 
likely, GnuCash -- would have some in-between state for scheduled 
transactions which show up in the register but are not really entered 
yet, this task would take a lot less duplicative effort.

What I'm suggesting is something like this: we have an option which lets 
the user include in the register all scheduled transactions for a 
user-determined amount of time in the future. 30 or 60 days would suit 
me. Creation of scheduled transactions should be possible right in the 
register. The balance displayed on each line should include the 
displayed scheduled transactions. The summary line at the bottom should 
show both the "real" current balance and the balance including the 
displayed scheduled transactions. This would let me see right in GnuCash 
the information I am currently calculating in StarOffice without 
re-entering all my planned expenses for the month.

Then there should be an easy way to point at a "scheduled" entry in the 
register, and with one click convert it from "scheduled" to "entered."

Even aside from the fact that it would help me with my cash-flow 
analysis, I think this kind of UI is a lot more streamlined than the way 
scheduled transactions are handled in Quicken.

What do other people think of these suggestions?

-- Aaron Peromsik