[GNC-dev] Multi-account actions

[Derek Atkins]

I agree that mass-reparenting of accounts should be allowed, even if the
accounts have splits, so that that all the selected accounts are allowed
under the new parent (by type).

The only corner-case I can think of is for Stock/Mutual fund accounts,
where GnuCash makes an assumption that the trading occurs in the currency
of its parent account, so if you move a stock/mutual account, the currency
of the new parent matters.  If you change to a parent with a different
currency, and there are already splits in the stock/mutual account, then
there might be an interpretation problem.

But for pretty much everything else, just checking the type validity is
sufficient.

-derek

On Mon, August 31, 2020 11:40 am, jean laroche wrote:
> Note we're talking about multi-*account* actions, not transactions.
> Multi-transaction actions would be great, but at the moment, the GC code
> does not make that easy to implement.
>
> @John, I agree that changing currency on an account that has splits does
> not make sense.
> Changing parent, if the parent is compatible, I'm not sure why that
> would be disallowed: Say I've decided to change the way I organize my
> expenses, and expenses that used to be in account A:B I now want to put
> into account A:C:D ... I don't see what the harm is even if there are
> splits in them.
> Note that this is *already* possible in GC: you delete account A:B and
> ask for transactions to be moved to a new account A:C:D.
>
> Jean
>
>
> On 8/31/2020 4:38 AM, Fross, Michael wrote:
>> Hi John. If I can go to 10 transactions and change them 1 by 1, what’s
>> the difference if can be iterated through, making the same change in
>> each? I must be missing something.
>>
>> I’m not a gnucash dev, but thought I would ask as I like Jean’s idea.
>>
>> Michael
>>
>> On Sun, Aug 30, 2020 at 10:40 PM John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us
>> <mailto:jralls at ceridwen.us>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>     > On Aug 30, 2020, at 10:32 AM, jean laroche <ripngo at gmail.com
>>     <mailto:ripngo at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     >
>>
>>     > Devs,
>>
>>     >
>>
>>     > I have 2 PRs that I submitted for multi-account actions.
>>
>>     > With these PRs, the user can select multiple accounts in the
>>     main account view, then:
>>
>>     > - Delete multiple accounts in one shot,
>>
>>     > - Edit multiple accounts in one shot (change the notes, the
>>     flags, the color, the currency, or move them to a different parent).
>>
>>     >
>>
>>     > I also want to add a "duplicate" action where the user can
>>     duplicate the selected account(s).
>>
>>     >
>>
>>     > All this of course isn't very useful if you already have your
>>     account tree and you never change it. But it's very useful, in my
>>     view if you need to setup your account tree or if you regularly
>>     need to add accounts.
>>
>>     > Also, it's part of an effort to make GC more user friendly,
>>     offering features that are common in nearly all software (select
>>     multiple, then do something).
>>
>>     >
>>
>>     > I'm afraid that these PR will just be ignored, because some of
>>     the devs just don't look favorably upon them (John for example).
>>
>>     >
>>
>>     > I'd like to ask devs to chime in on that. My argument is that
>>
>>     > - It makes the user's life easier.
>>
>>     > - It adds a feature to GC that is expected in most software (of
>>     any kind), select multiple then do something.
>>
>>     >
>>
>>
>>
>>     I don't have a problem with cosmetic changes like colors, notes,
>>     or names. Anything like currency or parents that can affect the
>>     accounting logic shouldn't be permitted unless all of the accounts
>>     have no splits. IOW the use case you proposed on the PR, shuffling
>>     things around when setting up a book, is fine. Doing any of that
>>     after creating splits can change the meaning of the splits and
>>     can't be permitted.
>>
>>
>>
>>     GnuCash is not like "all other software". Just because
>>     spreadsheets let you jump off the bridge doesn't mean that GnuCash
>>     should. ;-)
>>
>>
>>
>>     Regards,
>>
>>     John Ralls
>>
>>
>>
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>>
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>>
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>>
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>>
>
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-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant