Tracking Money in Savings Account

[Daniel Trezub]

Just added the description for the Cash Flow Forecast Feature into the wiki,
in the WishList page:

http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/WishList#Cash_Flow_Forecast_.28Report.2FFeature.29

Could we have a link to the WishList in the wiki's homepage?

=====
Daniel Trezub
http://www.gameblogs.com.br


On 21 December 2010 17:35, Daniel Trezub <daniel3ub at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi, Phil!
>
> I wrote the following message back in April:
> https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2010-April/034787.html
>
> Tell me what I can improve in the descriptions/specifications. I'll take a
> look at what you and Derek wrote to try to figure it out by myself.
>
> Happy hollydays!
> =====
> Daniel Trezub
> http://www.gameblogs.com.br
>
>
> On 20 December 2010 17:12, Phil Longstaff <plongstaff at rogers.com> wrote:
>
>> If gnucash were a commercial product such as Quicken or Quickbooks, there
>> would
>> be people whose job it is to define how the user will interact with the
>> program.  Human/computer interaction is a specialized field that most
>> developers
>> and users have (unfortunately) no training in.
>>
>> Let's use an example.  Daniel, I think it is you who has asked for a
>> cash-flow
>> forecasting mechanism.  I think the response has been that I as a
>> developer need
>> to know how it should work.  This needs to start with: what will the user
>> expect
>> to see?  A report?  Multiple reports?  A dialog box with info?  Line or
>> bar
>> charts?  How will the user initiate the operation?  How will the user
>> select
>> what accounts/transactions/scheduled transactions/whatever will go into
>> the
>> operation?  For that matter, what *will* go into the operation?  Could
>> include
>> just scheduled transactions.  Could include forecasts based on past
>> transactions.  Gnucash and most open-source software is developed on the
>> "scratch your itch" methodology - I developed a new format for a
>> budget-to-actual report which gave me the information I personally need -
>> it
>> scratched my itch.  It won't be included in 2.4.0 but should be in 2.4.1.
>>  With
>> luck, other people will find it useful, or will have suggestions that I
>> can make
>> to adapt it to their use.  I have other issues with some of the reports,
>> and I
>> will make changes to make gnucash work better for me.  With luck, other
>> people
>> will find it works for them, too.
>>
>> Unfortunately, when you have developers do the work in this manner, the
>> step of
>> analyzing human/computer interaction may not be well thought through
>> because
>> that is not the developer's strength.  For example, creating a report,
>> then
>> editing the options is how gnucash does a report.  To me, this is
>> backwards.
>> However, it may have been easier or the developer just did it that way.
>>
>> How should a user suggest an improvement?  It needs to start with the
>> concept.
>> I haven't been tracking this thread too closely, but it seems to be
>> involved
>> with the envelope method of budgeting.  OK.  Think through how you would
>> set up
>> the envelopes using gnucash's accounts.  What works easily and what
>> doesn't?
>> What new capabilities/reports might be useful?  As a developer, I can help
>> you
>> use the gnucash vocabulary to try to develop what you want, but I would
>> prefer
>> you can provide a thought-out design (including dialog box layouts if
>> possible,
>> even if informal) and workflow.
>>
>>  Phil
>> ---------
>> I used to be a hypochondriac AND a kleptomaniac. So I took something for
>> it.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: Daniel Trezub <daniel3ub at gmail.com>
>> To: stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com
>> Cc: Dennis Brakhane <brakhane at googlemail.com>; warlord at mit.edu; Gnucash
>> User
>> <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>; Wayne Bird <wrbird at hotmail.com>; Derek Atkins
>> <derek at ihtfp.com>
>> Sent: Mon, December 20, 2010 12:55:05 PM
>> Subject: Re: Tracking Money in Savings Account
>>
>> > It may also be the case that once users have specified "I want to be
>> > able to do THIS" (with "this" clearly defined) we can say "but you
>> > already CAN use GnuCash to do that -- just not  the way you were going
>> > about it (the facility was present; just not where you thought).
>>
>> This is very very common here.
>>
>> We, as average users, do not share the same line of thinking from the
>> developers. Sometimes something is extremely logical to the
>> developers, but it makes no sense at all to the average user. Let's
>> face it, it's common. In this cases, where the USER perceive something
>> as difficult or misplaced, how should we proceed to suggest an
>> improvement? Sometimes it's just a matter of changing an item from one
>> menu to another or something like this. How should we proceed?
>>
>> =====
>> Daniel Trezub
>> http://www.gameblogs.com.br
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>
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