reverse balance accounts

[Dave Peticolas]

Jason Rennie writes:
> Hello,
> 
> A while ago, I suggested adding more options to "reversed-balance account 
> types" in the GNUCash preferences.  I guess it might very well be 
> possible to enumerate all possible combinations that some reasonable 
> number of users might want, but maybe it would be better to more closely 
> tie this with the individual accounts.  Personally, I had some trouble 
> discovering the "reversed-balance account types" option.  Also, if 
> GNUCash continues with the option in the preferences pop-up, describing 
> sets of account types may get a bit hairy.
> 
> So, why not just have a button in each "Edit account" dialog?  One would
> probably want to base default settings on account type and possibly even
> require that the reversed-balanced option be consistent within connected
> accounts of the same type, but using one button per account should make it
> easier for every user to get what he/she wants (w/ respect to
> reverse-balance) while limiting the burden on developers (since this
> should be easy to design/implement vs. trying to enumerate sets of
> reverse-balance account types).

I think this is a good idea, both the per-account reverse setting
and requiring the hierarchy to be consistent. As for the reverse-balance
setting in the preferences menu, there really isn't another reasonable
default setting that I am aware of. Most non-accountant users like to
see negative expenses and positive income, while most accounting-savvy
users want to see balances reflect the debit/credit status of the
account. Other than the third alternative of not reversing anything,
I don't think there's any other default setting that makes sense.

dave