Budget report

[Chris Shoemaker]

On Mon, Aug 03, 2009 at 11:43:32PM -0400, Forest Bond wrote:
> Hi Phil,
> 
> On Mon, Aug 03, 2009 at 12:02:07PM -0400, Phil Longstaff wrote:
> > The budget report is my current itch, so I've been upgrading it.
> 
> ...
> 
> I'd like to see the budget reporting improved as much as anyone else, and I'm
> glad that you are looking at it.  However, the semantics of budget data have not
> been clearly established, as I highlighted in a comment on bug #570895:
> 
>   My current understanding of budget numbers is that if A and B are expense
>   accounts and B is a child account of A and both A and B have numbers entered
>   for a given period in the budget, the total expenses for that period is
>   A[period] + B[period].  In other words, A[period] doesn't *override*
>   B[period].  This is how things are handled in BIS, anyway.  I don't think the
>   correct behavior is documented anywhere.  This may be part of a larger design
>   discussion, so feel free to move it to the ML if you think it is appropriate.
> 
> I'd really like to see some agreement on this before the budget reports get much
> further.
> 
> Thoughts?

What you describe is correct.  It's important to remember that:
  a. A and B may use different currencies.
  b. Budget values for an account are always in the same currency as the account.
  c. There *may* be no reasonable way to convert from one currency to the other.

-chris