Scheduled transaction entry idea

[Josh Sled]

On Sun, Nov 25, 2001 at 02:17:33PM -0500, Tim Wunder wrote:

| I'd like to see a feature where I can enter a scheduled transation as an 
| invoice, much like business accounting packages enter AP invoices.

For personal finance, while this would be nice, this isn't how it's
usually handled.

| Say I receive my Gas and Electric bill on November 1st. It's due on November 
| 20th. I want to be able to quickly enter a scheduled transaction with only 
| the following data points:
| Payee: The Gas and Electric Company
| Due Date: November 20th
| Amount: Split between Electric and Gas

All GNC and the SX stuff currently concerns itself with is paying things
... it doesn't care when you received the bill, or how many days you have
it "owed" ... the SX stuff will assist you when the G&E bill is due on
the 20th, every month.

So you create a G&E SX for the 20th, with the appropriate splits, and
then twiddle the creation options [remind, create in advance, &c] until
it behaves how you want.  If the amount isn't fixed/known, then I'd make
the credit/debit formula a variable, and let the since-last-run stuff
prompt you for the amount on a monthly basis.

| So, I figure, your looking at the creation of a scheduled transaction 
| template., with the ability to create templates for the various periodic, and 
| variable, bills you receive. You then can enter an SX from that Template, 
| something like: Tools-Scheduled Transactions-Create from Template. 

You're adding a intermediate step [this Template SX stuff] that I don't
see as being necessary; the SX defines a recurring Transaction[s], and
the template transaction defines a template for what's to-be-created.
There's no particular call for a template-SX, which contains Template
Transactions.  There may be a call for generic Template Transactions
[which are not recurring, and are just available to be cookie-cut into
the books per the user's demand, but that's a different idea].

| Is this feasible with the makeup of the current SX engine?

Not really.  It seems more like you want Scheduled/Recurring A/P than a
Template SX... and I would handle that differently [i.e., keep the same
SX framework, but instead of a Template Transaction, have a Template A/P
... depending on how different Transaction and A/P are.  I would hope that
the A/P editor is integrated into the SplitLedger that already exists,
but I defer to Derek/others about how that should best be done].

I do believe there's an advantage to having A/P for personal finance [I'm
thinking budgeting and intra-month funds allocation], but only after the
tools to play with that are created... 

...jsled