Should I reconcile transactions

[Fred Bone]

Daniel said:

> Hello,
> 
> Should I reconcile transactions? I haven't reconciled any of my 
> transactions because I might make a change later. I'm still learning
> GnuCash and sometimes I re-organize my accounts, or put transactions in
> different accounts.
> 
> What is the benefit of reconciling a transaction? Does reconciling mean
> that I can no longer edit the transaction?
> 
> Let me give an example. Yesterday I had the following expense accounts: -
> Groceries - Home & Office
> 
> Today I decided to replace those by:
> - Living Expenses
> - Work Expenses
> 
> Some of the transactions that went into "Home & Office" where moved to a
> different account. Would I have been able to do this if the transaction
> had been reconciled? My understanding is that this wouldn't have been
> possible.
> 
> I'd welcome any advice. I'm just trying to learn the optimal way to use
> GnuCash.

A little experimentation shows that:

a) You reconcile only one side ("split") of a transaction at a time. When 
you reconcile, you are doing so from one account, and from the 
perspective of that account (presumably, reconciling against someone 
else's statement of that account). So, for example, if I look at a 
reconciled transaction on my Visa card account, I see
---
  Expenses:Groceries            n   13.52
  Liabilities:Credit Card:JLP   y           13.52
---

b) Once you have reconciled, you are restricted in the changes you can 
make. Taking the above example, if I go into the "JLP" account in "Basic 
Ledger" view, I cannot make any changes. If I go into a "Split" view, I 
can change the unreconciled side, either to reassign to a different 
Expense account, or to change the amount (in which case, as expected, it 
creates a "Suspense:Imbalance" split for the difference). OTOH, if I go 
into the "Expenses:Groceries" account, the in "Split" view the same 
applies, but in "Basic Ledger" view it will let me change the 
"Liabilities:Credit Card:JLP" to something else. (This doesn't seem right 
to me, but it's what it does currently).

c) Hence, if you reconcile both sides (e.g. the cheque with which you 
paid your credit card bill, reconciled against both statements), it's set 
in stone. I haven't tried deleting one: I would expect it to refuse to 
let me ...