wrong starting balance on reconcile

[David T.]

Andrew--

This is an excellent analysis of the problem at hand, and I think you have
identified the underlying design issue that should be addressed. I am pretty
sure that I've gotten caught on these several times in the past (I've got one
out there right now, in fact), and I suspect it's the "change a transaction in
the unreconciled account" variety that's bitten me.

I'll note that my recollection of Quicken's handling of this is that they have
the same trouble (conflating trivial with non-trivial changes).

Cheers,
David


--- hendrik at topoi.pooq.com wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 13, 2007 at 10:45:12AM -0800, Andrew Sackville-West wrote:
> > On Tue, Nov 13, 2007 at 09:15:53AM -0500, hendrik at topoi.pooq.com wrote:
> > > On Tue, Nov 13, 2007 at 08:16:06AM -0500, carpetnailz wrote:
> > > > Thanks for various suggestions I received.
> > > > 
> > > > I decided the problem arose because somehow an $11 transaction from a
> > > > year-and-a-half ago had come "unreconciled"--I was able to see this by
> > > > checking with one of the saved early versions (nice that Gnucash saves
> > > > all those versions). I don't know if it was some kind of inadvertent
> > > > keystroke on my part or some program glitch. But re-clearing that item
> > > > balanced things out. 
> > > 
> > > It would be interesting to find all the ways in which a reconciled item 
> > > can become unreconciled -- certainly it shouldn't be possible by an 
> > > inadvertent keystroke.  I don't know what version of gnucash you are 
> > > using, but the following seem to me to be possibilities:
> > > 
> > >   (1) You make another change in a reconciled transaction, maybe 
> > > changing the spelling in the memo field.  While you are doing this, an 
> > > inadvertent keystroke changes the reconciliation field.  When you 
> > > subsequently press enter you get a warning about a change to a 
> > > reconciled transaction, and ignore it, without realizing that there are 
> > > more changes than you are aware of.
> > > 
> > >    The risk of this could be mitigated if a visually different warnings 
> > > were to be used for changes that can actually change ta reconciled 
> > > balance and those that change other aspects of a trconciled transaction.
> > 
> > It appears that there is no differentiation made between the types of
> > changes made to a transaction. Certain changes don't matter,
> > obviously, and may not even warrant a warning. Changes to the memo,
> > description, notes, or number fields (like check number) really
> > shouldn't matter. Changes to amounts or accounts should be a big bold
> > flashing lights and bells warning. 
> > 
> > I think what you're referring to here is a situation where we get used
> > to seeing a warning about changing a reconciled transaction in
> > situations where it doesn't matter so that in situations where it
> > *does* matter its not noteworthy enough to cause a user to reexamine
> > their work.
> > 
> > I just played with this in svn and the warning pops as soon as you try
> > to enter a field in a reconciled split. Once you agree to the changing
> > of the split, you can do whatever you like to it. Essentially, you're
> > agreeing to change the split without necessarily the intention of
> > changing the important parts of the split. But because it doesn't care
> > what kind of change you're making, it becomes trivial at that point to
> > make inadvertent adverse changes. Note though that there is still a
> > warning thrown for changing the reconciled status of the split. That's
> > good.
> > 
> >  It might be better to allow entry into the split without warning and
> > then subsequently examine what the changes are before committing the
> > transaction. Then a warning could be thrown for changes that actually
> > matter. The warning becomes much more relevant and may help prevent
> > arbitrary click-through.
> > 
> > As a user, I don't really care if I change the memo, description,
> > notes, num or maybe even the date field. I *do* care if I change the
> > amount, status, or account. Warning me for the ones I don't care about
> > makes me lazy and click without thinking... 
> > 
> > just .02
> > 
> > 
> > A
> 
> Or the ones that really matter could be a warning message written on 
> a flaming skull.  You might notice that!
> 
> The ones that reallt matter are the ones that could change the 
> reconciled balance of an account.
> 
> -- hendrik
> 
> > _______________________________________________
> > gnucash-user mailing list
> > gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> > -----
> > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> -----
> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
> 



      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better pen pal. 
Text or chat with friends inside Yahoo! Mail. See how.  http://overview.mail.yahoo.com/