Some questions (i.e. temporary entries)

[Geert Janssens]

On Tuesday 19 October 2010, Paul Schwartz wrote:
> --- On Tue, 10/19/10, Geert Janssens <janssens-geert at telenet.be> wrote:
> > From: Geert Janssens <janssens-geert at telenet.be>
> > Subject: Re: Some questions (i.e. temporary entries)
> > To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > Cc: "Paul Schwartz" <pmjs1115 at yahoo.com>, stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com
> > Date: Tuesday, October 19, 2010, 2:31 AM
> > On Tuesday 19 October 2010, Paul
> >
> > Schwartz wrote:
> > > --- On Mon, 10/18/10, Mike or Penny Novack <stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com>
> >
> > wrote:
> > > > From: Mike or Penny Novack <stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com>
> > > > Subject: Re: Some questions (i.e. temporary
> >
> > entries)
> >
> > > > To: "Paul Schwartz" <pmjs1115 at yahoo.com>
> > > > Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org,
> >
> > "Harry" <hvb.box at gmail.com>
> >
> > > > Date: Monday, October 18, 2010, 2:32 PM
> > > >
> > > > > Gnucash is a great program for personal use.
> >
> > It is
> >
> > > > pretty easy to use, but it is not for people
> >
> > worried about
> >
> > > > controls and audits. It just doesn't have any
> >
> > control/audit
> >
> > > > features that traditional accounting/bookkeeping
> >
> > has.
> >
> > > > > HTH
> > > > >
> > > > > Paul
> > > >
> > > > Easy to fix runs counter to "good practice" in
> >
> > bookkeeping.
> >
> > > > So yes, you can edit entries, but "proper
> >
> > practice" is to
> >
> > > > offset them by a correction entry so that an
> >
> > audit trail
> >
> > > > remains.
> > > >
> > > > If using GnuCash for more formal purposes you can
> >
> > get some
> >
> > > > of the "can't change" effect by burning copies of
> >
> > the file
> >
> > > > (and a copy could be handed off out of your
> >
> > personal
> >
> > > > control). That's what I do for the organizations
> >
> > for which I
> >
> > > > am using GnuCash to keep their books.
> > > >
> > > > Michael
> > >
> > > I agree with you. It's just so easy to make changes
> >
> > without good practice,
> >
> > >  it eventually "sucks you in". Also, I think that
> >
> > the lack of "Journal
> >
> > >  Entry" report makes it very difficult to keep
> >
> > track of what has been done.
> >
> > > Paul
> >
> > There is indeed no enforced system that prevents you from
> > changing past
> > entries. You can however use the reconcile option to
> > prevent you from
> > accidentally changing past entries though. If you try to
> > modify a reconciled
> > transaction (split to be exact), GnuCash will warn you and
> > asks your
> > permission to continue.
> > As said, this won't enforce good practice, but it can
> > encourage it.
> >
> > About the "Journal Entry" report, I think you can almost
> > get there by tweaking
> > the options of a transaction report: select all accounts
> > and sub accounts,
> > choose the information you wish to display, and sort on
> > register order. The
> > only information missing would be the date the transactions
> > were entered (as
> > opposed to the date of the transaction). It should give a
> > fairly good overview
> > of what has been done though.
> >
> > Geert
> 
> Agreed, but I have found that the entry date is really important to
>  figuring out what you have done.
Yes, I concluded that from your earlier writing also. There's no solution for 
that yet indeed. Did you already an enhancement request for in gnucash 
bugzilla (http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Bugzilla) ? That's your best shot to 
get this implemented soon. Please provide an accurate description of what the 
report should contain/look like if you create a bug report.

>  Also, I'm not sure how to get all of the
>  entries together in one list, irrespective of what account they are in.
> 
Create a transaction report, click on the Options toolbar button, go to the 
Account tab and select all the accounts you wish to see. Note that the "Select 
All" button here doesn't select sub accounts, so you'll have to do this 
manually. That will select all of the accounts and makes sure you get all the 
entries in your report. To remove the grouping on account, go to the Sorting 
tab in the same options window, set primary key to "Register order" and the 
secondary key to "None".

Does this help ?

Geert