Feature suggestion: display account numbers in register and account selection popup

[Florian Haas]

On 08/27/2011 12:29 AM, Yawar Amin wrote:
> Hi Florian,
> 
> On 2011-08-24, at 08:32, Florian Haas wrote:
> 
>> […]
>> Now, while GnuCash does allow for accounts to be assigned a number,
>> those numbers are not available to actually be selected in the
>> register when making an entry. That complicates matters for users
>> using a numbered accounting scheme -- specifically because, as the
>> account number identifies the account unequivocally, the account
>> hierarchy scheme does not enforce uniqueness among leaf account
>> names. In GnuCash, this problem can be worked around by referring to
>> accounts by their full name (as opposed to just the leaf account
>> names) -- but that's comparatively tedious, compared to identifying an
>> account by its number.
> 
> Just want to make sure you know that you can type in an account code in the account entry field, instead of a full account name. When you enter the account code, say 4224, and Tab to the next field, GnuCash automatically substitutes in the full account name. So even though it doesn’t show you a list of the available account codes, you can still type them in.

That is helpful, and I clearly was not aware of that. Thanks for
pointing this out. Is there any other hidden clever shortcut which will
also work if you select a partial account number? So is there any way to
type, say, 42 and some magic key, and then get a dropdown with all
account numbers *starting* with 42?

I would still maintain, though, that for German/Austrian/etc. users who
are used to a numbered account scheme, displaying the account code plus
leaf account name would be the most useful way of displaying the account
in the register. So I believe the original suggestion to optionally
include the account code in the register is still valid. Thoughts?

Cheers,
Florian