trouble getting check register

[Alan H. Lake]

I think that I'm not expressing the problem I have very well and am
assuming that something I came up with was correct, when apparently it
isn't.

I had stated only part of the problem, thinking that I could extend the
solution to the other part.  I'm going to back off and try to state my
problem without reference to what I think might be the solution.

The basic problem is in comparing the bank's statement with my gnuCash
records.  Last year the church's books were manual, so I'm pretty
certain that the beginning balance is wrong.  I need to try to compute
what the beginning balance should be.

When contributions are made, each contributor may specify the asset
subaccounts he wants his contribution put in.  At year end, I'm going to
need to prepare a statement for each contributor for tax purposes, so
individual contributions need to be tracked, then put into the proper
subaccount.  However, they also need to be summarized to provide a
deposit amount that I can compare with the bank's statement.  

On the debit side of the bank's statement, I need to click off which
transactions have cleared in gnuCash.  Without some sort of report, I
have difficulty knowing which subaccount a given check was written
against.  

Only after telling gnuCash which transactions have cleared the bank am I
able to use the Reconcile facility, AFAIK.  Am I barking up the right
tree?

On Wed, 2004-04-07 at 08:44, Rusty Carruth wrote:
> Derek Atkins wrote:
> 
> > Please remember to CC gnucash-user on ALL replies...
> > 
> > "Alan H. Lake" <alan.lake at lakeinfoworks.com> writes:
> > 
> > 
> >>How should I restructure these accounts so that I can maintain a check
> >>register, but at the same time know how much money in the checking
> >>account is designated for each of the funds that are now subaccounts?
> > 
> > 
> > I dont know.  I dont think you can.
> > 
> > Note that with your current setup the balance in the account tree will
> > be correct, and you can still reconcile the account+subaccounts as if
> > it were a single account.  So that works correctly to.  The only thing
> > you cannot do with your current layout is a "check register".  Small
> > sacrifice.
> 
> I'll have to mostly agree with Derek here :-)
> 
> In fact, I just realized that this is how we have (one of) our checking
> account(s) set up.  And he's right, you cannot do a 'check register' report.
> However, I've found that I rarely needed it anyway, since the question
> of 'what is the actual total in the checkbook' isn't the right one 99%
> of the time anyway (and the answer to that question is available without
> a check register report anyway, if you think about it).
> 
> SO, the first question to ask is 'Why do I think I need a check register
> report?'  Especially since balancing the checkbook using the 'reconcile'
> window works perfectly (as long as you remember to tell it to include
> all subaccounts), and you can tell what the current total balance in
> the checking account is by looking at the account tree.
> 
> The question that most people need to ask is "Do I have enough money
> to purchase <x>?", which is perfectly answered by "How much money is
> in (sub) account <x>?" (whose answer is there in the account tree
> display :-).  If the next question (since there wasn't enough in <x>)
> is "Can I borrow some from another account?" then its time to send
> in the budgeting gestapo ;-)  er, um, ahh, I mean - then again its
> simply a matter of checking the balances of the other accounts (and
> trying to remember what *else* the other accounts are about to need
> money for :-).
> 
> One possible solution, if you absolutely require a checkbook-register
> style thingy, is to simply record the transactions in a physical
> check register and use that.  Or put them into a spreadsheet and
> use that as the register.  If I ever end up using that scheme much
> I'll consider writing an 'export to spreadsheet' thingy...
> (I've been known to use a spreadsheet to balance the paper check
> register with the GnuCash balance once I've balanced gnucash against
> the bank.  Thats a problem with having a paper register as well
> as the GC one - you have to balance twice, if you want the paper
> one to mean anything that is :-)  (all the above IMHO, YMMV, etc :-)
> 
> Hope that helps...
> 
> rc
> 
> permisison granted to repost this just about anywhere (as long as
> its not modified to misrepresent what I said) as long as my email
> address is removed.  The following email address does not need to
> be removed, in case anyone really has to get in touch with me:
> r u s t y c < a t > d e s c o m p . c o m ...
> 
> > 
> > -derek
> > 
> > 
> >>On Tue, 2004-04-06 at 19:11, Derek Atkins wrote:
> >>
> >>>Balances are per account, not per register.  Combining sub-accounts
> >>>does not show running balances of the selected transactions.
> >>>
> >>>-derek
> >>>
> >>>"Alan H. Lake" <alan.lake at lakeinfoworks.com> writes:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>I am managing a church's treasury with gnuCash 1.8.8.  The account
> >>>>structure is
> >>>>Assets
> >>>>  Current Assets
> >>>>    Checking Account
> >>>>      Altar Guild
> >>>>      Building
> >>>>      Camp
> >>>>      General
> >>>>I would like to get a check register that combines the data from all of
> >>>>the sub accounts into the Checking Account.  I did a right-click on the
> >>>>Checking Account and selected Open Subaccounts.  The window that opens
> >>>>does not contain check register information.  When I run the report from
> >>>>that window, the running totals are not correct, because they don't show
> >>>>the sum of the subaccounts, only the first subaccount.  It also doesn't
> >>>>show which entries have been reconciled and which aren't.  I don't know
> >>>>whether this is a bug or whether this isn't the register that I'm
> >>>>looking for.  Can anyone help me?
> >>>>Thanks.  Alan
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>_______________________________________________
> >>>>gnucash-user mailing list
> >>>>gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> >>>>https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> > 
>