Scheduled Transactions as Unscheduled Templates

[Josh Sled]

Havard Rast Blok <nn2 at hblok.net> writes:

> I recently sent out this on the user-list, however did not receive any
> answers (only two, "me too"), so I thought I'd try here.

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Scheduled Transactions as Unscheduled Templates
> Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 09:22:23 +0200
> From: Havard Rast Blok <nn2 at hblok.net>
> To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>
> Hi,
>
> The automatic transaction history of GnuCash is one of my favourite
> features, and scheduled transactions takes this one step further: now
> only a single number is all it takes to complete a transaction.
>
> However, not all reoccurring transactions follow a defined schedule.
> Take paying for postage or stamps as an example: It happens frequently
> with different amounts, but is usually not scheduled. When I need to
> enter a transaction of this type, I'd still like the power of the
> template functionality, though. Then I can type in only the gross
> amount, and the rest (VAT, etc.) is filled out automatically.
>
> I've browsed several threads, wiki and docs, but cannot find any way to
> set up an "unscheduled" template. Is it worth a feature request?

It's been a feature request for a long time, though perhaps informally.


Havard Rast Blok <nn2 at hblok.net> writes:
> Well, here's my first simple, but perhaps naive, suggestion:
>
> In the current "Frequency" tab of the "Edit Scheduled Transaction" window,
> add an entry to the list of Frequencies: "Never". The rest of the UI in that
> tab would then be disabled (gray?).
>
> To recall the template, use the current auto-complete functionality for
> previous transactions. If the new Description auto-completes and matches a
> template, bring up the window "Since Last run..." to enter the custom
> fields. (Might want to rename the title of that window, though.)
>
> What do you think? Too simple? Confusing? Or worth a try?

Popping up a (new) dialog to solicit a set of named values from the
user, and then creating the relevant Transaction … is not hard.  It's
probably easier than misusing the SX UI code to do so, actually.

I'd approach it from the other direction: you really want to promote the
existing "implicit" templates that auto-complete starts to surface into
a first-order, "explicit" UI concept.  Forget about scheduled
transactions, and focus on the templating.

Maybe after you have it working where the "template set" is "scheduled
transactions with frequency=none", you can improve it by making the
templates have their own identity … have a way in the UI to explicitly
CRUD named templates … separate storage in the data file, &c.

Hooking into the autocomplete code to do what you want is not going to
be easy, I don't think.  You might want an explicit "Transaction >
Create From Template", maybe which popups up a text entry which has
autocomplete over the available-template names.

-- 
...jsled
http://asynchronous.org/ - a=jsled; b=asynchronous.org; echo ${a}@${b}
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