Possible problem with splits

[Donald Allen]

On Jan 25, 2008 8:31 AM, Mike or Penny Novack <stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com> wrote:
> I was probably not being clear enough?
>
> With most transactions, even most split transactions, it is perfectly
> reasonable that the transaction description be the same everywhere. The
> point is that the "description" give MEANINGFUL information about the
> transaction. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the default behavior
> -- if there is NO description provided for some line of the split, use
> the "main" description.
>
> However there are other sorts of splits where this is not so, and a bank
> deposit transaction is a good example. From the point of view of the
> account "bank account" perfectly reasonable that the description be
> "deposit". But for each of the lines of the split, that is an unuseful
> description. OF COURSE the checks were deposited (what else could have
> been done with them -- a business or organization doesn't cash received
> checks, or at least shouldn't be doing that).
>
> And yes of course, possible to expand the split in the other account to
> see the description. But if there were MANY items in that deposit,
> onerous to look at it that way. To answer the explanation "but the split
> simply appears in each affected account" (when not expanded) might I
> point out that this is NOT so. GnuCash correctly displays for an
> "amount" the amount from that line. Presumably not all that difficult to
> have it also display the description entered for that line of the split
> IF there was one (if blank, use the main description just as now). In
> the expanded view should of course use the main description just as it
> does now.
>
> Understand? In many/most cases you ARE interested in the other parts of
> a split transaction. But in the case of splits for things like bank
> deposits there is no real connection between the items except that they
> were all deposited on one trip to the bank entered on the same deposit slip.
>
> Please note that it took me a year's worth of data before I noticed
> this. Our volume is very low and and usually I don't have multiple items
> on a deposit slip.

I completely disagree with what (I think) you asking for. As it is
now, there is a clean separation between the roles of the
per-transaction transaction description and the per-split memo field.
Each serves a well-defined purpose that does not change with the
context. What you appear to be asking for is that the transaction
description take on the value of the memo field, depending on the
account you view the transaction from and how you view the transaction
(expanded or unexpanded)? For me, this is confusing behavior that
would subtract significantly from the cleanliness and consistency of
the user interface. If you want to see the memo fields, either default
to auto-split mode and click the transaction (from any account that's
involved), or select the transaction and click the split button.

/Don

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