Splits in Cash Flow report

Nowl night0wl at inbox.com
Thu Dec 3 11:08:30 EST 2009


Maf. King wrote on Wed, 2 Dec 2009:

>Yes, I see what you mean.  I've made a new test file, with a single txn split
>from checking to 2 expense accounts.  I've attached a couple of screenshots
>of the register and report output,  which may help others on the list
>understand what you mean.
>
>The Cash Flow report when run on just one of those expense accounts does show
>what you describe, with the bottom line (labeled difference) being the actual
>total flow "into" that account.
>

Hello Maf

Thank you so much for replying, and for taking the time and trouble to 
try this out and confirm what is happening. I really appreciate it.

>IANAA, so I'm not sure what is supposed to happen here, hence I'm not sure if
>this is a bug, or if you are bending the purpose of the cash flow report, by
>running it against expense accounts rather than asset/liability accounts
>only.
>
Ah, I'm sure you're right and that isn't how the report's meant to be 
used (IANAA either :-).  I should have explained I only did that as a 
check. It was an anomaly in an asset account, my Petty Cash account, 
that started the whole thing.

The Cash Flow report from the current bank account (the "from" account) 
correctly showed a total of £30 going into Petty Cash, but Cash Flow on 
Petty Cash showed it had "received" £35.

I tracked this down to a split transaction: £10 to Petty Cash, and £5 to 
Expenses:Meetings. The report when run for Petty Cash includes the whole 
£15 transaction, then shows it "paying forward" the extra £5 to the 
expense account.

 From what I can see, if splits are included, the Cash Flow report is 
only correct for the account from which money is being taken (in this 
case the current bank account). If it's run against any account in a 
split transaction, this account is shown as receiving the whole amount 
and paying the others. Whether they're asset or expense accounts doesn't 
make any difference, and neither does the order in which they appear in 
the split.

I think it must be a bug. . . unfortunately a pretty serious one for me. 
Could you advise me on where to go from here?
>
>Sorry I can't be of more help,

You've been a great help, Maf, thank you again.

-- 
Nina


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