Transaction balancing

[Derek Atkins]

Chris Morgan <chrismorgan@rcn.com> writes:

> >How did you import it?  The importers themselves should allow
> you to
> >balance the txns in the importer.
> >
> 
> The importers DO allow you to balance the transactions in the
> importing window, but like I said I want to go back and
> balance the transactions with a similar kind of interface.

Why?  The register's invariant is that "all transactions are
balanced".  Theoretically you should never have imbalanced
transactions once you get into the register.  The fact that the
importer gave you imbalanced transactions is, IMHO, a bug in the
importer that should be fixed there.  I see no reason, in normal
operation, for this type of feature to exist in the register.

> How about we don't try as hard?  Locking the user into
> balancing an entry just because they clicked on it mistakenly
> seems like a silly ui practice.  Maybe instead we can
> highlight unbalanced transactions.

That would allow users to violate the invariant that all transactions
are balanced.  In normal operation users are entering data via the
register, so we want to make sure their data is balanced.  This
implies that imbalanced transactions are the exception, not the rule.

While I do agree that perhaps we should mark imbalanced transactions
in the register, to let users know they need to fix them, I believe
that the real point to fixing this is in the importer.

> This referrs to the register window:  If I click on an
> unbalanced transaction and start to balance it I'd like the
> option of doing the same automatching that is done during
> importing to be done on this transaction.  Also, it would be
> nice to be able to rerun the autobalancer at any time and have
> it resolve all 100% matches it finds, same date, opposite
> amounts etc.  

Sorry.  Wont ever happen unless you give us the code.  This code is
practically useless in 99% of normal usage.  As I said before, if you
enter a transaction via the register, it's going to be balanced then
and there.  If you import a transaction, the importer should
auto-balance it.  I repeat: an importer that does not auto-balance has
a bug.

> It does, my beef is mostly with balancing AFTER the importing.

You should never have to balance after importing.  If you skip the
importer balancing routine then, well, you're shooting yourself in the
foot.  Why should we encourage you to do so?

>  If I try to balance credit card debits and I have yet to
> import my checking or savings account then why bother?  Thats
> why it makes sense to have an autobalacing feature that you
> can run at any time.

Um, because this is double-entry accounting... If you don't like it,
well, go find another piece of software :) Seriously, transactions
have multiple states to let you know, well, what state they are in.
Let's say I write a check...  Do you really want to wait until the
check clears your account before you mark it in your register?  No!
Of course not -- that way leads to madness.  So, why do it with
credit-card transactions?

Seriously, transactions have "cleared" and "reconciled" flags for
a reason!

> Chris

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
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