Feature request from German list: Disable editing of transactions

[Graham Leggett]

Christian Stimming wrote:

> Makes sense, but do you have any ideas how such a per-account setting can be 
> implemented in the GUI? Currently, all per-account settings can be set in 
> the "Edit Account" dialog. However, a setting "Make this an inalterable 
> account" shouldn't be allowed to be disabled again in the GUI, as this would 
> make the whole setting moot. Do you think the "Edit Account" dialog should 
> get a button to enable that behaviour? Or do you think this should somehow 
> show up in the "Create New File" wizard? Both would require GUI actions of a 
> kind that are not yet implemented there. 

This starts gnucash down the road of having the concept of users, and 
users having some kind of access level. For example the admin user can 
log in, and set these kinds of parameters, while a normal user cannot. 
This isn't a bad thing, but do we want to bite off and chew on so much 
of the problem at once?

There are other parameters other than a lock-date that you would also 
need to protect from modification, such as the currency of the account, 
and other metadata.

> Also, from an implementation point of view it's not clear to me which kind of 
> editing should be allowed for transactions that contain one split in an 
> inalterable account and another one in an editable account. Some fields like 
> the transaction date are a per-transaction field (as opposed to per-split) - 
> should those fields be allowed to be edited or not?

I'd say any split in an unalterable account should be unalterable, while 
any split in an alterable account should remain alterable. For example, 
if you raise an invoice, you end up with splits in "income - sales" 
(unalterable), and "accounts receivable" (alterable). The transaction 
has to balance to zero, otherwise the edit won't be allowed to complete.

Regards,
Graham
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