Question to european gnucash users

[Steve Hall]

On Tue, 2003-08-05 at 18:44, Fredrik Persson wrote:
> On Tuesday 05 August 2003 20.19, Steve Hall wrote:
> >
> > Reconciliation is a double-check. But you can always decide to
> > trust everyone else who handles your money to do as they promise.
> > :)
> 
> Reconciliation seems worth the effort. Still, there's one thing in
> the procedure that doesn't really fit well in a check-less country.
> You see, it goes like this: You write the check, and enter the
> transaction. Then, according to the help file, when you think that
> the check "has cleared" (whatever that means), you mark the "R"
> column with a "c" instead of an "n". When your statement arrives in
> the mail, you do the reconciliation and end up marking the "R"
> column with a "y".
> 
> I'd say the "c"-step is pointless to europeans, since we don't have
> checks.
> 
> What's the point of having checks, really?? They just seem to make
> everything more complicated and difficult.

Actually, I never used a cleared status *until* I started downloading
transactions into my accounting software (the "other" one, I'm afraid
;). 

Whenever I did the download, transactions of my manual entry and those
electronically entered from the download were marked as "c". This was
helpful to see which charges had actually been transacted with my
account against those still outstanding. Then, when the paper
statement came, I could reconcile and most "c" marks would be changed
to "y". However, some might remain "c", meaning they occurred after
that month's statement had been published. Finally, others might be
unmarked entirely, meaning they had neither cleared my account or
showed up on my statement.

For personal finances, I would agree that the distinction has little
practical help. (I've never had a cleared transaction that didn't
reconcile by the next month's statement.) But for larger entities,
transaction status means cash flow. And if you're living on the edge,
that little bit of info might help you make some important decisions.


-- 
Steve Hall  [ digitect at mindspring.com ]

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