Editing Complicated Security Transactions

[David Carlson]

On 9/3/2015 1:03 PM, David Carlson wrote:
> I should split this off from the price rounding thread, but I don't
> know how to do that in GMail when I am replying from inside the thread.
>
> Ledger view doesn't show number of shares or prices, so I would still
> need to go the security account to check on/fix them.  I do not see
> how to fill out the transfer Funds Dialog from a confirmation
> statement listing number of shares, price, commission and amount. 
> There are no boxes for number of shares or amount.  I am also not sure
> which split line the dialog is working on after it has popped up.  All
> closing transactions should have a pair of adjustment (Realized
> Gain/Loss) lines as well as the basic purchase/sale.and currency
> transfer lines.
>
> It seems like it is still easiest to let the GnuCash Transfer Funds
> dialog do whatever it wants then go to the security account where the
> number of shares is shown and correct it, because it probably is wrong.
>
> The multiple securities or accounts in the same transaction would
> usually be transitory during the editing process, but the cases you
> mention would be permanent.  I can also attest that when I had a 401-K
> with many securities in 5 different sub-accounts it was very common to
> have as many as 30 ledger entries in a single bi-weekly transaction
> and I was too lazy to duplicate each one separately.
>
> David C
>
> On Thu, Sep 3, 2015 at 10:06 AM, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us
> <mailto:jralls at ceridwen.us>> wrote:
>
>
>     > On Sep 3, 2015, at 6:25 AM, david.carlson.417 at gmail.com
>     <mailto:david.carlson.417 at gmail.com> wrote:
>     >
>     > I usually reply at the end of a message but this tablet is not
>     set up that way yet.
>     > Thank you John for that concise description.  This thread
>     > Is too lengthy to browse and I am still trying to figure out why
>     one Android device puts the last message at the top of the list
>     and another device puts the last message at the bottom or sorts
>     randomly? ?? I am definitely not rrady to give up my tower next to
>     my desk.  Tablets are impossible to edit on, too.
>     >
>     > I like the idea of deferring the transfer dialog to the end of
>     the edit session but that would not completely solve the problem
>     of changing a transaction from a sale of ABC stock to FOO stock
>     because it is still necessary t o save before going to the target
>     security account register to adjust the number of shares or
>     something to get whole thing right
>
>     You can do that in the transfer dialog: Instead of entering the
>     price in “Exchange Rate” click the “To Amount” radio button (or
>     just arrow down to it) and enter the actual amount you want. The
>     dialog will calculate the corresponding price for you.
>
>     > Maybe I could learn to start by adding an empty split line to
>     make the ttarget security account available as a place to do the
>     edit., but there is still either an intermediate save or split
>     lines containing different lots and securities (maybe even
>     different brokerage accounts) to contend with.
>     > Now that I am thinking about it, maybe I should try doing that
>     in a ledger view.  I have not tried that.  Business transactions
>     probably add more cans of worms to this work flow concept.
>
>     If you’re talking about changing your procedure then just make
>     sure you change the counter-account before editing the
>     credit/debit column so that the Transfer Dialog has the right
>     information at the outset.
>
>     Do you really have multiple securities in a single transaction
>     that often? I only do that when there’s a merger or a spin-off.
>     That requirement (which is anyway reasonable) means that we’d have
>     to keep a list of the commodities and run the transfer dialog once
>     for each of them. The invoice creation code already does that.
>
>     Ledger view might make the operation easier if you’re changing
>     both the cash and security accounts.
>
>     >
>     > If there was a way to paste an entire transaction into an
>     account, then a different method of editing might work.  I think
>     that would be way beyond the scope of this work.
>
>     Ledger view might help with this, too.
>
>     Regards,
>     John Ralls
>
>
>
It is easiest to just continue doing it the old way.

David C