interesting feature suggestions (was: GnuCash vs. Quicken)

[Shayne Lennox]

Hi Christian,

At 12:42 PM 8/12/2002, Christian Stimming wrote:
> > the description column in the accounts tree not adjusting properly,
>
>Huh? What precisely is the bug here? Maybe this one might be easy to fix.

The Account Name column containing the tree is pretty narrow by default 
(just enough to accomodate the top-level account names "Assets", 
"Expenses", etc.) but readjusts itself when you expand the tree. The 
Description column is the same, but doesn't readjust itself after you 
expand the tree, revealing the account descriptions of the child accounts, 
so many of those descriptions are cut off. I actually came up with a bit of 
a workaround for this today: giving the top level accounts a description, 
then adding a lot of whitespace to the end of one of the descriptions, 
causes the description column to be wider by default.

> > not being able to clear a split easily,
>
>Err... can you explain more what you mean by this one?

This is a bit of a leftover from my Quicken days. If I entered a 
transaction and split it between multiple "categories" (e.g. one 
transaction, but some spent on Petrol and the rest spent on Groceries) but 
later wanted to change it to a single category or simply start over having 
messed up the splits, there was a simple "X" button which would clear them, 
and you'd just set the category again (all other parts of the transaction 
were maintained). In GnuCash, you have to both delete the split line(s) you 
want to get rid of and rebalance the transaction manually.

I'm not sure where a feature to quickly clear splits might cause problems 
with double-entry. Presumably the splits would all be cleared, the 
debit/credit amount would come from the split of the account you're working 
in, and the cursor would move to the Transfer field ready to select a new 
account.

> > not being able to do an automatic "balance adjustment" in cash accounts,
>
>Right, we have had this discussion every so often, but nobody found a "real
>easy" way to correctly implement it. It's a perfectly valid feature request,
>though. Maybe another "enhancement" request in bugzilla?

There might be something I'm not considering, but I'm thinking this would 
be one of the less difficult things to implement. Cash accounts would have 
a simple "balance adjustment" instead of a full "reconcile" feature. This 
idea is actually pinched from Quicken. You just enter the real amount after 
counting your pennies, select an account in the dialog (e.g. 
"Expenses:Misc", which the balance adjustment dialog would then default to) 
and an adjustment transaction is entered.

> > the "find" function not working half the time,
>
>I don't know anything about this one, though.

The feature not working "half the time" for me simply has to do with the 
fact that I almost always do a find either by Description or Memo, but the 
latter search doesn't seem to work at all.

One additional thing about the find function. If you're working in an 
account and click the find button, it would be nice if that account were 
selected by default in the tree in the find dialog.

> > the lack of scheduled transactions,
>
>Hey jsled! Here's your guy.
>Seriously, scheduled transactions are one of the Big New Things in 1.8.

This, alongside the improved currency handling, is one of the features I'm 
excited about and missed most from Quicken. Unfortunately, I don't have the 
confidence to install the beta, so I can't try the features and comment on 
how they've been implemented before the 1.8 release.

> > the lack of forecast-based reports/graphs,
>
>Cool. Interesting idea. Never thought of this. There have been discussions
>about Budgeting (which basically said that's it's quite difficult to get it
>right), but maybe forecast reports are much easier. This would still need a
>lot of discussion about what can be done and what cannot be done -- but if
>you can come up with a very simple case that would be an improvement for you,
>then maybe somebody will quickly do it?

I hate to use the "Q word" again, but forecasting based on scheduled 
transactions was one of the useful things in Quicken, so it's not really my 
idea.

One of the problems I have with GnuCash, with its lack of scheduled 
transactions, is that I no longer know what my position will be in the next 
week or month. Now scheduled transactions are implemented, and that 
automation makes entering regular transactions quicker and easier. But that 
in itself doesn't show me what's coming up -- there needs to be a 
report/graph or something that uses that information to do so.

Say that, being frugal about bank fees, I need to keep my bank account 
balance above $1000 to avoid a $6 account keeping fee. There's also this 
nice impact drill for $200, it's a nice sunny Sunday to drive down to the 
hardware store and get it, and there's $1300 in my account which seems to 
cover it. However, I've forgotten about a monthly bill of $50 on Tuesday, 
and a quarterly bill of $150 on Friday, both due before my next fortnightly 
paycheck the following Monday:

A bar graph showing my bank balance for the next week or two, based on my 
scheduled income/expense transactions, will show that my balance will be 
down to at least $1100 on Friday, and if I were to buy the $199 drill today 
it would go below my $1000 barrier. Better to wait a couple of weeks. It 
may actually sound a bit silly just to avoid a $6 bank fee, but this sort 
of forecasting is important for fringe dwellers, particularly if it were a 
matter not of dropping below $1000, but below $0.

Perhaps the quickest implementation, and one that I would be satisfied with 
initially, would be to show these future transactions in the account 
register. This is one thing Quicken does, placing these future-dated 
transactions in the register below a blue line, e.g:

6/12/2002       Some Transaction        ($20)   $1300
-----------------------------------------------------
10/12/2002      Nasty Bill              ($50)   $1250
12/12/2002      Nastier Bill            ($150)  $1100
16/12/2002      Income                  $1000   $2100

Although scheduled transactions don't show all coming income/expenses (e.g. 
groceries, petrol), the above still gives me a much better idea of how 
things look over the next couple of weeks.

Regards,

Shayne Lennox