"Tools > Close Book" doesn't seem to do what I want, i.e., to shrink gnucash file by rolling up transactions

[Derek Atkins]

"Jonathan Kamens" <jik at kamens.brookline.ma.us> writes:

> Thank you for confirming that "Close Book" isn't intended to do what I want.
>
> However, your suggested solution is not terribly helpful.  Yes, I know that
> I could create a new set of books and create opening balances for all my
> accounts by hand.  However, it's ridiculous for me to have to do something
> tedious and time-consuming by hand which clearly could be done
> automatically.
>
> I wrote a Perl script to parse the GnuCash XML and do this automatically
> almost three years ago.  I even sent a copy of it to this mailing list.  I
> think it's sort of ridiculous that almost three years later, this obvious
> functionality still isn't available inside the program.

Actually IIRC it was in 2003.

> (As for why I don't use my script, it's because (a) I haven't checked
> recently to see whether it is compatible with the current schema, (b) it has
> a couple of minor deficiencies that I still know about, and (c) I was hoping
> not to have to take the time to do (a) and (b).)

Yeah, your script stopped working somewhere around the 2.0 period.

> Simply put: For those of us who use GnuCash to run our personal finances,
> not a business, there should be an automatic way to roll over into a new
> GnuCash file while preserving the balances of all accounts.

Submit the code in C and I'll commit it.  :-)

Simply put:  there are many desires for features and support in GnuCash
and just not enough developer hours to get to them all.  Yes, this is
a good idea, but it's also a feature that's generally only used once
a year at most, versus other features that are more day-to-day.

Adding an unmaintained PERL script that goes behind the GnuCash API
and accesses data directly helps nobody because it will quickly go
out of whack with nobody to fix it.  Something that uses the GnuCash
API would always continue to work.

>   jik

> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.

-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