transcation dates and clearing dates

[T. Howell-Cintron]

rsbrux at yahoo.com wrote:
> The recent discussion was about rigging the numbers to order within a day.
 > My own scheme is to use 4-digit numbers for deposits and ATM 
transactions,
 > and 5-digit numbers for checks.  Gnucash sorts first on day, then num.
 > Thus, my deposits always appear first in the day.
> 
> For matching bank post date and Gnucash, I initially specify a date sometime 
 > in the future, such as end of month or even end of year.  I add the
 > transaction date to the end of the payee description.  Thus: Smith's
 > Grocery (10/15/09).  When the check clears the bank, I change the date
 > to the actual posting date and remove the date from the description.
 > Thus, the data at current date and prior matches the bank.
> 
> I think that transaction date should have been designed into Gnucash at
 > the start.  Seems like commercial use of Gnucash would require that.
 > Otherwise, there is no database date to prove that the transaction
 > occurred on time, but was posted late.  Which really happened for my
 > Storage shed monthly payment, which was entered a month
 > late.  Fortunately, I had the dated receipt.
> 
> My own copy of Gnucash has a transaction date field, which borrows the 
 > entry date (which is normally not visible or editable, but which I
 > consider to be useless for personal finances).
 > > I could submit a bug and patch with my changes, but the probability 
that
 > would be accepted is zero.

Jim, If I understand correctly you're running in to the same problem I 
am - the date you enter a transaction is days prior to the transaction 
clearing at the bank, and you want to keep track of both dates.  You 
have a patch to do this?  Why wouldn't that be accepted?  It sounds like 
an immensely useful feature.

My work-around is much like yours - I include the actual transaction 
date in the description and update the date field with the day it 
cleared at the bank.

-- Tom