transcation dates and clearing dates

hendrik at topoi.pooq.com hendrik at topoi.pooq.com
Wed Nov 4 09:13:31 EST 2009


On Wed, Nov 04, 2009 at 04:19:44AM -0600, T. Howell-Cintron wrote:
> 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.

HAving the transaction date and the clearing date, and bein able to sort 
the register by either would be very useful.  Normally I'd sort by 
transaction date (as at present), but when comparing to a bank 
statement, I'd sort by date cleared and be able to follow the running 
balance.

-- hendrik


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