[GNC-dev] Further feedback

[Christopher Lam]

On 5/2/19 2:37 am, Stephen M. Butler wrote:
> Column recap:
> Account -- account name as now shown.  Allow option to get the full name.
> Reconcile-Dt -- Date of most recent reconciliation for the account.
> Most likely will be today or very recent.
> Starting -- Sum of all reconciled transactions for this account prior to
> Reconcile-Dt.  AKA -- Bank Starting Balance
> Reconciled -- Sum of all reconciled transactions for this account on
> Reconcile-Dt (only those transactions just reconciled).
> Ending -- Sum of Starting and Reconciled -- AKA Bank Ending Balance.
> Outstanding -- Sum of all non-reconciled transactions for this account
> (include future dated transactions).
> Balance -- Sum of Ending and Outstanding.  Should be the account balance
> shown in the Accounts tab.

Ok I can work with the following dates:

  * Last-reconciled-date may exist for each account
  * Report-date is today.
  * Start/End Dates (from options, but we want to avoid them)

The property exist per transaction in account:

  * Reconciliation status - (n) unreconciled (c) cleared (y) reconciled

To ease understanding I've created branch maint-bugfixes-reconciling 
which creates the following header, so, please check the headers and let 
me know which column must be kept. It may be easier to test on a very 
short datafile, max 20 transactions per account.

Illustration: https://imgur.com/a/uYNnrhS - columns as follows

  * account-full-name
  * last-reconcile-date
  * all unreconciled until last-reconcile-date
  * all unreconciled until today
  * all unreconciled & cleared until last-reconcile-date
  * all unreconciled & cleared until today
  * all reconciled until last-reconcile-date
  * all reconciled until today
  * all unreconciled & cleared & reconciled until last-reconcile-date
  * all unreconciled & cleared & reconciled until today

C

>
> Note -- on the options Display tab, the Amount can be None, Single or
> Double.  Changing this appears to make no difference in the report.
> Perhaps it should be removed if it does nothing.
>
> Also when selecting all accounts, the summary did list all accounts
> including those that never had a reconciliation.  Perhaps we should
> impose a filter that the account has to have been reconciled at least
> once before showing up in this report.  I'm thinking maybe add an
> additional restriction that it has to have been reconciled more recently
> than x days ago (a really old account that was reconciled years ago is
> just hanging around but gets included because it was reconciled a
> century ago -- slight hyperbole!).  I would probably pick 100 days as
> there are accounts that get a statement only quarterly.
>
> That way we could pick some options that 80% of the user base could use
> without having to click on the options button to configure the report:
> *  All accounts
> *  Reconciled within the last 100 days
>
> That way the default report would pop up and it would suffice for the
> vast majority of users.  It would only show accounts that had been
> recently reconciled.
>
> --Steve
>
>
>
> On 2/3/19 6:58 PM, Stephen M. Butler wrote:
>> On 2/3/19 3:35 AM, Christopher Lam wrote:
>>> Hi Stephen
>>>
>>> If possible I'd be grateful if you would check my branch
>>> maint-scheme-progress
>>>
>>>    * cd gnucash
>>>    * git fetch --all
>>>    * git checkout chris/maint-scheme-progress
>>>    * dpkg etc (note there will be gnc-date error - ignore)
>>>
>>> Main issues for feedback:
>>>
>>>    * Reconciliation report modified header hopefully is satisfactory
>>>
>>> Thank you, your (and house accountant) feedback *very* much appreciated!
>>>
>> git describe
>> 3.4-104-gacbcc6a1a
>>
>> Reconciliation report.  Looks like I can no longer select the date for
>> the reconciliation.  I had done one a few days ago.  At this point it
>> showed only the un-reconciled transactions.
>>
>> This summary at the top was interesting (I selected a parent with 3
>> children):
>>
>> Account          Starting     Reconciled   Ending
>> BECU              $0.00        $0.00            $0.00
>> Checking        $1,591.23  $1,591.23     $4,039.74
>> Money Market $1,004.44  $1,004.44    $17,004.61
>> Savings           $454.09    $454.09       $486.21
>>
>> With apologies to wm, and warning therefore that TMI is forthcoming (wm,
>> skip to next email to avoid being offended).
>>
>> At first I was expecting the Reconciled column to show what had been
>> reconciled in the last pass.  However, it shows everything that had been
>> reconciled up to that point.  My question now is, when would those first
>> two columns be different after the first reconciliation?
>>
>> The Ending column appears to go into the future.  My checking register
>> has upcoming entries that I know will happen so I an forecast if the
>> account will be overdrawn at any point.  I'm wondering if it shouldn't
>> end at today.
>>
>> I then reconciled the bottom two accounts and noted:
>>
>> 1.  Unable to locate the option to see the reconciled transactions.  I
>> should be able to see the transactions just reconciled (most recent date
>> reconciled).
>>
>> 2.  The bottom two accounts had all three columns the same as the ending
>> figures above.  In this case I would expect:
>>
>>      A.  Starting column would have the account balance prior to the
>> transactions reconciled in this just finished action (most recent date
>> reconciled).
>>
>>      B.  The reconciled column would have the total reconciled.  In this
>> case I think you need two numbers.  Total credits and total debits
>> reconciled.
>>
>>      C.  Ending column should be the account balance just after the
>> reconciliation.
>>
>> At this point I sat down with the accountant and had an enlightening
>> conversation.  Let me translate into coding speak.
>>
>> 1.  She said to get rid of Reconciled column -- as presented it doesn't
>> make sense.  [I suggest the net balance of Funds In and Funds Out for
>> items just reconciled.]
>>
>> 2.  Need to show the most recent reconciled date (so I know the checking
>> was last reconciled last month) and the other two were just reconciled.
>>
>> 3.  Starting balance needs to be what the bank statement showed at the
>> end of last month.  [You can get this by summing all reconciled
>> transactions up through the last month's reconciliation -- ie, not
>> including the most recent reconciliation date.]
>>
>> 4.  Ending balance should show the bank statement at the end of this
>> month.  [Ending = Starting + Reconciled]  sum all reconciled
>> transactions including the current cycle.
>>
>> 5.  Must see the just reconciled transactions with the CR/DR sub-totals
>> just like you show for the unreconciled.
>>
>> 6.  Good to see the transactions still not reconciled.
>>
>> Summary:
>>
>> Locate the most recent reconciliation date for the account.
>>
>> Get the starting balance by summing all reconciled transactions up to
>> but not including that date.
>>
>> Get the reconciled amount by summing all reconciled transactions on the
>> most recent reconciliation date.
>>
>> Ending balance = the sum of all reconciled transactions (inclusive).
>>
>> You might want to add an Outstanding column showing the sum of the
>> transactions not reconciled.
>>
>> Then show the reconciled transactions for that last date followed by the
>> unreconciled transactions.
>>
>>
>> The implication for my situation is that the checking account would show
>> last month's values since I hadn't reconciled it yet this month.
>>
>>
>> Hope this gives you some idea of how to accomplish the accountant speak
>> to get the bank starting and ending balances without peeking at the
>> actual statement!
>>
>> --Steve
>>
>>
>>