[GNC-dev] About 3.9 and reconciliation balances

[Geert Janssens]

Op dinsdag 7 april 2020 18:37:25 CEST schreef Derek Atkins:
> Hi,
> 
> On Tue, April 7, 2020 11:47 am, Dale Phurrough wrote:
> > Cool use of cleared/reconciled for expenses. I can follow that general
> > approach.
> > I do have an inquiry regarding the need for the future when reconciling.
> > (What am I missing...or is there a gnucash feature I'm assuming exists
> > that
> > doesn't?) 🤔
> 
> The path I follow is CLOSE to the path you follow, except I do a few
> things at the same time in gnucash and post-date the transaction.  More
> below..
> 
> > In my mind, I see two accounts
> > 1) bank account, e.g. Bank of America Checking
> > 2) the expenses, for simplicity lets put them all into a single
> > "Reimbursable Expenses" account
> 
> In my case I also have a credit card account involved.  Also, note, that
> the Reimbursable Expenses account is really an ASSET type.
> 
> > As I think through this, I would hope you can following a workflow similar
> > the following:
> > 1. Enter multiple transactions into "Reimbursable Expenses" account for
> > all
> > such expenses
> 
> Yes.  These come from various places, like Credit Cards, Cash, etc.
> 
> > 2. Submit expense reports and mark those expenses in "Reimbursable
> > Expenses" account as cleared
> > 3. Wait for check
> > 4. Receive reimbursement check on 1 May 2020
> 
> Correct.
> 
> > 5. On 2 May 2020, use GnuCash to reconcile the "Reimbursable Expenses"
> > account
> > 6. Mark the splits in the "Reimbursable Expenses" that are included with
> > this reimbursement check as reconciled. The reconcile date on those
> > specific splits will be 2 May 2020.
> > 7. Now the "Reimbursable Expenses" account is reconciled.
> > 8. On 4 May 2020, deposit the reimbursement check.
> 
> This is not correct, or at least not completely correct.  Recall that the
> overall process is like A/R:
> 
> A) CC -> Reimbursible
> B) Reibursible -> Cash/Bank
> 
> So when I get the reimbursement check on May 1, I use my bank app to
> deposit the check, but I know that deposit wont actually hit my account
> until May 2 (or possibly May 4).  So on May 1st I enter in a transaction
> for Reimbursible -> Bank (to process the check) dated May 2 (because
> that's when it hits the bank, which is more important to me than when it
> hits the reimbursible account).  The NEXT step is that, also on May 1, I
> want to reconcile my Reimbursibles back down to $0 (because they've been
> reimbursed)!!  In this case, I want to date the reconcile on May 2 (so it
> includes the deposit that will hit the next day).
> 
> I am lazy and forgetful.

Hmm, so lazy and forgetful are the source of this debate... ;-)

For your convenience, even if we would prevent setting a reconcile date in the future (which 
actually *would* make sense), you could add splits to the reconcile that are future dated. The 
downside would be you'd be required to manually adjust the end balance in the reconcile info 
window.

So for your example above, you could
- set reconcile date to May 1
- set end balance to 0 (which the reconcile info window would have miscalculated based on the 
May 1 end date)
- continue with reconciliation and include the check's split in the reconcile.

That will work just fine.

Do you really insist on being able to set a date in the future just for this ?

Regards,

Geert