Questions about sheduled transactions

[Tommy Trussell]

On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 4:46 AM, Ulrike Fischer <news2 at nililand.de> wrote:
> I'm currently investigating if I should switch from Quicken to
> GnuCash and have some questions about sheduled transactions.
>
> I have the following requirements:
> - They should never be included automatically. I want to trigger the
> execution one by one when it fits me.
> - I want to be able to change/adjust the date, the amount and the
> transactions of the current instance before including it.
> - I want to be able to skip sometimes one occurence completly.
> - I want to be able to insert an occurence earlier than the normal
> due date.

It's not completely obvious but the Status field in the Since Last Run
dialog is the secret to making these requests work.(In fact I just
filed a bug report http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=571697
asking to make it obvious the status field items are actually a popup
menu.)

When you create your scheduled transactions, such as for a recurring
bill, simply put the bill's typical payment date as the scheduled
transaction date, but have the transaction reminder appear some number
of days BEFORE that date, such as when the bill usually arrives by
postal mail or email. Then you can be watching for the bill, and when
you see it, change the Status of that transaction in Since Last Run
from "Reminder" to "To-Create," and check the checkbox (at the bottom
of the window) that lets you review all created transactions. When you
OK the Since Last Run dialog, a new register tab will appear where you
can modify the payment amount, the payment date, the description line,
etc. of every transaction just created.

> - I would like a report about the sheduled transactions of e.g. the
> next month, (including the amounts). But this is not a must, the
> list in the sheduled transactions window is acceptable.
> - I would like to remove the calender from the due date window to
> have more place for the list of transactions.

These sound like enhancement requests -- I agree that the scheduled
transactions window could be improved, though there are always
tradeoffs. Maybe you have a "vision" of what it should look like that
you could draw and suggest as an enhancement?


> Currently I do have the impression (it's a bit difficult to make
> tests as I seem not to be able to insert sheduled transactions with
> a first due date in the past) that I can't do most things I want to
> do or that it can only be done with a lot of actions. Have I
> overlooked something? Is there a better way to prepare
> future transactions which would suits my needs better?

Please reply (and remember to CC the gnucash list) saying whether the
process I described addresses your needs...


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