Future balance question

Ian X Waddington iwaddox at gmail.com
Wed Dec 1 10:53:56 EST 2010


Tommy

I can see how this might work but it might be a lot of hard work and as you
say it didn't exactly answer the question, thank you for trying though.

To be honest I cannot see any reliable replacement for a forecast report
(graph) which takes the known transactions (already entered) and then
calculates the worst case from all the scheduled transaction for the
required period.

Ian

-----Original Message-----
From: Tommy Trussell [mailto:tommy.trussell at gmail.com] 
Sent: 30 November 2010 17:39
To: Ian X Waddington
Cc: gnucash-user at lists.gnucash.org
Subject: Re: Future balance question

I didn't see a follow-up to this so I thought I might tackle a couple of
points:

On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 4:03 PM, Ian X Waddington <iwaddox at gmail.com> wrote:
> Also, do you know the difference between ignored and postponed?

I have not looked at the code for this, but from my observations here are
what the Scheduled Transaction statuses mean. (Note to self: This needs to
be added to the new Tutorial and Concepts guide, if it hasn't
already.)

Scheduled Transaction Status in Since Last Run dialog

Reminder: The scheduled transaction "Reminder" status means today's date is
fewer days than the "Remind in advance" setting, but not yet the creation
date. Unless you change the transaction's status, it will automatically
progress from "Reminder" to either "To-Create" or "Created" on the scheduled
transaction date.

Postponed: The scheduled transaction will remain in the Since Last Run
dialog with the "Postponed" status until you change its status. [I use this
status for items I want to create eventually but the scheduled date has
already passed.]

Ignored: When you set the status to "Ignored," when you press the OK button
the scheduled transaction will be cleared from "Since last run"
without creating a transaction for the current cycle. [I use this status for
transactions I want to remember, such as a credit card payment, but get
created elsewhere OR are not needed. If I owe nothing on a account for the
month, I can set the transaction status to Ignored. Alternatively, when I
balance the credit bill, GnuCash will automatically create a payment
transaction so I can use that created transaction and I can set the
scheduled transaction to Ignored.]

To-Create: When the transaction status is "To-Create" the transaction will
be created when you click the OK button. You can see AND edit all the
created transactions if you set the "Review Created Transactions"
checkbox in the Since Last Run dialog and click OK.

Created: This status means the transaction has already been created
automatically. This will only happen if you set the "Create Automatically"
checkbox in the Scheduled Transaction editor and today's date is or is or
beyond the scheduled date. You can see AND edit the created transaction if
you set the "Review Created Transactions" checkbox in the Since Last Run
dialog and click OK.


> So now I can get the future balance of my checking account by entering 
> all my planned transactions in advance. But this does not seem to be 
> following any form of best accounting practice as it then relies on me 
> remembering to delete transactions that don't happen.
>
> One of the most basic requirements of any personal accounting package 
> must be to allow the user to manage the future balance on the account 
> - I am very interested to learn how people worked around this issue 
> and answered questions like "Can I afford to withdrawal £100 from the 
> ATM this evening and still pay all my direct debits towards the month
end?"

Here is an idea you may or may not be keen on... you may need to change the
way you think about that £100.

If your rich uncle gave you a £100 note and instead of putting it in the
bank, you could put it in your vest pocket as "mad money" to spend on
whatever. OR you could put it in a different bank -- a "piggy" bank in your
bedroom, or a different neighborhood bank or bank account or whatever.

You are keeping the mad money away from the same "book" as the account you
use for your daily expenses. You don't want to touch your bank account for
fear of overspending.

Now think about how maybe you don't HAVE a rich uncle, but you can create
that £100 yourself by setting aside £1 a day for 100 days. Or
£10 a week. Or £100 off the top of each paycheck, if you're so lucky.
You can put a paper note in your piggy bank OR you can create a virtual
account in GnuCash.

Go into your Accounts list, select your bank account, and create a new
sub-account with your bank account as the "parent" account. Call the account
"Mad Money" (or whatever suits you) and transfer however much money you
think you can afford into it, either as a one-time thing, or by creating a
scheduled transaction. When you spend your Mad Money, transfer the
transaction amount from the Mad Money account, and as long as you don't
deplete your Mad Money AND you know the account in the regular account
retains enough to cover your regular expenses you are good to go.

When you balance your bank account against your bank statement, be sure the
"Include Subaccounts" checkbox is checked. That way the money in your Mad
Money account (plus any other sub-accounts you might want to create) gets
included in the reconcile totals, BUT the running total in the GnuCash
register for the bank account will NOT include the Mad Money account. It's
as if it's stashed in the glass piggy bank in your bedroom, and as long as
the main account never goes negative your Mad Money is safe. If your bank
account register goes in the red, you know it's time to reduce expenses or
transfer some Mad Money back to the main account to keep it in the black.


That didn't exactly address your question -- it's actually a way to use
GnuCash to help you change your saving/budgeting behavior INSTEAD of trying
to use GnuCash to foretell the future.



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