Gnucash 1.8.2 first impressions

[Derek Atkins]

"Salkind, Lou" <Lou-Salkind at deshaw.com> writes:

> I've been following gnucash for a while, but have never used it (other
> than to play with it for a few minutes every year or so to see what it's
> current capabilities are).  With the recent 1.8 release, I decided to
> look again, so I imported a Quicken file into gnucash 1.8.2 running on
> RedHat 8.0 (I just took the binary rpms from the download site).  
> 
> Here are some of the problems/questions I had in my first session:
> 
> A) The QIF importer doesn't set a current price for various stocks,
> funds and other securities.  I had to set it by hand.  I believe the
> information was in the QIF file, but even if not, perhaps it can be
> guessed at from the last transaction?

Pricedb entries are never created by anything except the Transfer
Dialog, Manual Entry in the Price Editor, and pulling quotes off the
net.  I'm not convinced that the QIF importer (or any importer) should
actually add items to the pricedb -- but I could be convinced.

> B) On the register for each of those stock and funds, the total number
> of shares and the current value are correct (this is reported just below
> the menu bar and icons, as well as on the account screen).  Yet when I
> run the Account Summary report (or Book Value, etc.), the value of the
> assets in these accounts is quite different.

How is it different?  I should note that gnucash handles stock
accounts _poorly_ right now.  There are lots of problems where gains
and losses are not properly accounted.

> C) Minor user interface nits:  
> 	- The most significant digit in the balance of the register is
> shaved off (pixel calculation doesn't seem correct)

I think this depends on your font.  For example, it works fine for me.
Note that you can also resize the register columns.

> 	- No matter how much I resize the register window, I can't get
> rid of the horizontal scroll bar

Really?  You should be able to get it to save if you resize the
window, then close the window, then re-open the window.  If that
doesn't work then that's a bug and should get fixed.

> 	- On the account editing window, the account type and parent
> account panel is just one line of text high, which makes it difficult to
> scroll
> Does this have something to do with gnome 2.0?

Uh, what version of Gnucash are you using?  I thought this was fixed
in 1.8.2, but perhaps it was one of those patches that were applied
after 1.8.2 and will be fixed in 1.8.3....

> D) If you are doing a balance sheet report, what value do you use for
> the set of assets?  Is it the book value or the market value?  If it is
> the market value, then you need another balancing entry for the
> unrealized profits.  (This is a theoretical question, because I can't
> get any meaningful value right now.)

See above about stocks not being properly accounted for...  This is a
known deficiency.

> E) Is there lot identification anywhere?  I didn't see it.

Not for stocks.  Indeed, there is no UI to handle Lots at all.
This is being worked on as we speak.

> I should say the program has come a long way in the last couple of years
> and has a lot of potential.

Thanks.  :)

-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
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available