Reconciliation [Proposed Change]

[lingwitt at bellsouth.net]

On 10 Sep 2007, at 10:28:47 PM, David Reiser wrote:

> Certainly. But the detail is that once reconciled, you never have  
> to go back further in time to find any error than to go back to the  
> last reconciliation date.

Definition (investopedia.com): An accounting process used to compare  
two sets of records to ensure the figures are in agreement and are  
accurate.


On 10 Sep 2007, at 10:33:14 PM, keith wrote:

> Reconciliation serves 2 purposes. One is to check that the amounts  
> of the items charged to accounts are correct. The other is to make  
> sure that the bank's balance for the account is the same as yours.  
> To make the second work you need to know that the starting balance  
> is correct. So you need to reconcile bank statements in order.  
> Gnucash does let you mark the amounts as you compare them with the  
> bank statement, even if you do not do a reconciliation. So you can  
> do 1 without 2 if you want; you just cannot call the amounts  
> reconciled.

It seems like the current version of reconciliation is incomplete.

To reconcile, one should specify two things:
	
	(1) Start Date
	(2) End Date

With that information, gnucash should present the user with 2
pieces of information:
	
	(1) The net change of money within that interval
	(2) The account balance up to that date

I suppose two versions of Reconciled Balance are
necessary too.

This way, reconciliation provides useful information
on both all time and intervals of time.

Simultaneously, it should be easy to find unreconciled
transactions.

It's not my fault that my Bank is another dipshit institution
run by computer illiterate geezers; I don't know why I
can't access all of my bank statements easily, so why
does gnucash have to give me a hard time too?

My Motto:
Humans should not work to make tools happy.
Tools should work to make humans happy.