Action Field, Present, future, projected minimum etc

[Derek Atkins]

Spam Proof <spamproof007 at yahoo.co.in> writes:

> Hi,
> I am a home user, and I have been using Gnucash for around an year. I
> should say that it has served me really well. The tutorials are also good
> and it got me started with doubly entry accounting and Gnucash.
>  
> I have few queries
>  
> 1. When I open an asset (say Bank Accounts), it shows five columns in
> the top (Present, Future, Cleared, Reconciled, Projected Minimum). I
> know what is Reconciled, but could someone explain what is Cleared?
> Also, how is present, future and projected minimum calculated?

Cleared is a state half-way between "n"ot-reconciled and
"y"es-reconciled.  It's marked as a 'C' in the "R"econcile column.
You use it to mark a transaction when it "Clears" your account
(i.e. when the funds actually leave/enter).

Present is the balance as of 'now'.  It ignores transactions dated in
the future.  Future uses all transactions.  Projected Minimum is like
future but it shows you the lowest (minimum) that your account will
achieve.

> 2. I read in the architecture document that there is a way of grouping
> related expenses using the action field. Can someone explain how this
> can be done? For example I spent something on food and travel as part
> of my vacation. How can I mark both these expenses together so that I
> can get the total of how much I spent on the vacation?

You enter a string into the action field.  Then you can "search for"
transactions with that specific action.

> 3.Is there a way to show the capital gains?

There is a way to show unrealized capital gains through a number of
reports.  GnuCash does not automatically handle cap-gains, however.
It's being worked on.

> 4.What is the difference between notes and description fields? How
> am I supposed to use them?

The Description is more like the "payee".  Notes are like the "memo".

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available