[PATCH] Tax-related inconsistency in UI

[David T.]

Alex--

You are right; you can assign multiple accounts to one tax code value. The problem is that mostly I assign different tax lines to different accounts. Understanding that I am NOT an accountant, I have set my own books up so that most accounts line up with a particular tax code line, and in most situations, there will be more separate assignments than gathered ones. So I do think that it would be more user-friendly to be able to alter more than one account (with different tax code lines) at a time in the dialog. It certainly shouldn't allow you to change several accounts only to discard all but the last.

Your general proposal (to consolidate the tax related settings onto one page) makes sense, and would certainly reduce the chance for user error.

David

--- On Mon, 9/29/08, J. Alex Aycinena <alex.aycinena at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: J. Alex Aycinena <alex.aycinena at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [PATCH] Tax-related inconsistency in UI
> To: sunfish62 at yahoo.com
> Cc: gnucash-devel at gnucash.org
> Date: Monday, September 29, 2008, 2:39 PM
> David,
> 
> See comments below:
> 
> On Sun, Sep 28, 2008 at 10:00 PM, David T.
> <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > As the user in question, I'd like to note that the
> Edit->Tax Options has other oddities that make it more
> difficult to use.
> >
> > The one that most annoyed me was the fact that the
> window only saves the tax setting for ONE account at a time.
> Thus, to set a number of accounts, you have to repeatedly
> open Edit->Tax Options, navigate through the account
> hierarchy (changing over to Income, if you're working on
> those accounts) to the account in question, then scroll
> through the list of tax lines on the right then click OK.
> This makes the process much more work than it needs to be.
> >
> > The second part that is annoying is that the dialog
> happily lets you "change" all your accounts in one
> pass, without notifying you that only the last account you
> change will actually get saved. This, combined with the
> first part, is pretty frustrating.
> >
> 
> As a clarification, the current Edit->Tax Options dialog
> does let you
> set the tax-related flag and assign ONE tax code to
> multiple accounts
> at a time. For example, if you select a parent account and
> then click
> on 'select sub-accounts', the parent and its
> sub-accounts will all be
> selected (or you can individually select multiple
> non-contiguous
> accounts using the ctrl key while selecting them with your
> mouse or
> contiguous accounts using the shift key) and, once multiple
> accounts
> have been selected, click the tax-related check box to
> enable the TXF
> Categories pane, select a category and click OK to update
> several
> accounts, but all to the same ONE TXF Category. You can
> also un-select
> the tax-related check box for multiple accounts in a
> similar fashion.
> 
> > I would recommend changing the Edit->Tax Options
> dialog to allow the user to change multiple accounts in the
> dialog, perhaps by adding a "Save Account Changes'
> button, and changing the OK button to read "Save and
> Exit" (its behavior could remain the same). That, or
> store all the account changes and commit them all on close.
> >
> 
> What you can't do, which would be a good improvement,
> is select
> multiple accounts and assign them to multiple TXF
> categories, some
> perhaps shared, others not, with one dialog interaction.
> This may be
> what you're getting at. I know, for example, that older
> versions of
> Quicken work that way and it is much more convenient.
> I'll try to
> remember to add this as an enhancement request - or you
> could if you
> want.
> 
> By the way, do you know that you can add a 'Tax
> Info' column to your
> account page using the arrow on the right. This lets you
> see which
> accounts are assigned to which TXF categories very easily
> to review
> and make sure you didn't overlook any or mis-assign
> any. If you use
> the TXF categories, this is a good column to have displayed
> all the
> time.
> 
> > David
> 
> Apart from this enhancement opportunity, do you agree with
> my proposal
> that it doesn't make sense to be able to set the
> 'tax-related' flag in
> the 'Edit Account' dialog because you can end up in
> the illogical and
> confusing condition of having the flag set and no TXF
> category
> assigned? And that it is better to direct the user to the
> Tax Options
> dialog where the two can be updated together and kept
> consistent?
> 
> Alex
> 
> >
> > --- On Sat, 9/27/08, J. Alex Aycinena
> <alex.aycinena at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> From: J. Alex Aycinena
> <alex.aycinena at gmail.com>
> >> Subject: [PATCH] Tax-related inconsistency in UI
> >> To: gnucash-devel at gnucash.org
> >> Date: Saturday, September 27, 2008, 4:49 PM
> >> Hello,
> >>
> >> While testing a modified Tax Report that I
> submitted
> >> recently, I found
> >> what I would consider a UI inconsistency that
> initially
> >> caused my
> >> report to bomb until I fixed the report to handle
> this
> >> condition. That
> >> is, that you can set an account as
> 'tax-related' in
> >> the edit account
> >> dialog and then not assign it a tax code using
> Edit->Tax
> >> Options.
> >> Another user that was helping me test the new
> report
> >> assumed that
> >> by simply setting the flag, the appropriate data
> should
> >> show up on
> >> the report, without realizing that the Tax Options
> dialog
> >> needed to
> >> be used also. This is a mistake any user could
> easily make.
> >>
> >> I think as easy solution is to change the account
> edit
> >> screen to display
> >> the tax-related field but not to allow it to be
> changed and
> >> to add a
> >> tooltip to the field to direct users to use the
> >> Edit->Tax Options dialog
> >> to set the flag and assign a code. Also, the help
> contents
> >> should be
> >> modified to make this clear.
> >>
> >> If these changes are agreed to by the developers,
> I have
> >> attached
> >> two patch files to do this.
> >>
> >> The log entry for patchfile should read:
> >>
> >> "Changes the 'Sensitive' Property to
> >> 'No' from 'Yes' in
> 'account.glade'
> >> for the 'tax_related_button' widget so
> that the
> >> setting is displayed but
> >> cannot be changed in the account edit dialog. Sets
> the
> >> Tooltip
> >> property to "Use Edit->Tax Options to set
> the
> >> tax-related flag and assign
> >> a tax code to this account." in
> >> 'account.glade'."
> >>
> >> For docs-patchfile, the log entry should read:
> >>
> >> "Updates the Account-Actions help chapter to
> direct
> >> the user to use the
> >> 'Edit->Tax Options' dialog to set the
> >> tax-related flag and assign
> >> a tax code during account set up and maintenance.
> Indicates
> >> that the
> >> tax-related flag on the account edit dialog is
> display
> >> only."
> >>
> >> I would appreciate any comments on this proposed
> change.
> >>
> >> Thanks
> >>
> >> Alex
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> gnucash-devel at gnucash.org
> >>
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
> >
> >
> >
> >