Feature Request: triggers or variable auto-transactions

[Karl Hegbloom]

On Fri, 2005-08-19 at 16:24 -0400, Josh Sled wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-08-19 at 12:48 -0700, Karl Hegbloom wrote:
> 
> > Perhaps a special feature for posting a DDA could schedule the repayment
> > just as the bank does, to have it happen right after posting the
> > paycheck?  A dialog could take the initial information, like the amount
> 
> Could you simply create both transactions when you post the DDA?  Since
> the paychecks probably come on a set schedule, you can always figure out
> when the next one would be, and you can post-date the repayment
> transaction to that date.

But if I enter the transaction now, even if it is post-dated, won't that
affect the displayed account balance?  That would make it difficult to
monitor the present balance, and thus greatly increase the chances of an
overdraft, the very thing the DDA is meant to avoid.  It's a lot cheaper
to pay the service charge on the DDA than for an overdraft.

> > transaction.  Q: Can this be done using scheme and current GC features?
> 
> Certainly, anything can be done if you're willing to write it. :)  It
> would probably be a bit more involved than simply re-combining existing
> features with scheme, but not too much.

I will need to spend a lot of time learning about the internals of
GnuCash then.  It cannot be possible otherwise, that's just the way it
is.  The question then is, should I begin with CVS GnuCash for GTK2, or
with presently released GnuCash?  I think it will take some time for me
to learn it since I've limited time available for that.  When will the
GTK2 version be releaseable?

> > In thinking about this, it seems to me that a generalized mechanism for
> > creating this sort of dialog would be very useful.  If the widgets could
> 
> Also useful is the idea of a palette of template transactions --
> divorced from the scheduled transactions -- which can be instantiated by
> the user.  They would be slightly different from the
> whole-transaction-autocomplete that we currently have, mostly by being
> first-class participants, and being available for explicit creation.
> E.g., here, you could have a "Take DDAdvance" template that contained
> both the advance and repayment transactions, and you could create them
> as a unit.

Maybe I could simply create the scheduled transaction, and schedule it
to happen only once.  That seems easiest and now that it has occured to
me, almost obvious.

> [...] I've been musing about writing that for a while, but there are many
> other higher-priority things for me right now. If this is your itch,
> then scratch away!

Well, it's summer vacation, one month to go before fall term begins.
Right now my itch has more to do with my social life and
recreation.  ;-)

-- 
Karl Hegbloom <hegbloom at pdx.edu>