transcation dates and clearing dates

[rsbrux at yahoo.com]

Jim, 
The approach you describe below sounds emminently sensible.  Why do you rate it's chances of being integrated in the official distribution so poorly?  After reading the discussion in this list, I'm sure that many users would welcome it's inclusion!  Please give the submission a try.
Best Regards,
Roger
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:08:45 -0400
From: jraehl at raehls.org
Subject: Re: "Action" tab
To: <lists at kathera.com>
Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
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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 Raehl