Notes-Memo confusion

[Carpet Nailz]

On Wed, 2011-04-13 at 09:13 -0400, Derek Atkins wrote:
> "Maf. King" <maf at chilwell.net> writes:
> 
> > On Tuesday 12 April 2011 15:26:09 Carpet Nailz wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Where does this "Memo" value come from, since it's in neither the VISA
> >> entry nor the Expense entry?
> >>
> >
> > Hi,
> > Are you looking at the register in Basic Ledger mode?  Try turning on Double 
> > Line and Auto Split from the View Menu.
> >
> >> What's going on and how can I get the right "Notes" in my report?
> >
> > ISTR that a transaction can have a "notes/memo" entry, but each split can also 
> > have a "note/memo" for just that split.  It sounds like you are picking up 
> > that split-level text.  Sorry, don't know how to get the transaction-level 
> > text.  From some casual experiments, it seems that if the split to 
> > the "reported" account has memo text, then the transaction report shows that 
> > text, but if it isn't there then the transaction text is shown.
> 
> Technically, the transaction has a "Notes" field, which is for the
> transaction itself and is viewable only in double-line mode.  Then each
> Split has a "memo" field that it part of the Split itself.

I'm still confused, since I'm usually not doing a "split," just a simple
entry with one credit and one debit in basic ledger mode. So why does it
not just capture what I'm entering there rather than pulling in
something from a "split" transaction that's not even being used now?

Does it follow that one should never use the basic ledger mode if one
has ever used a "split" with that vendor/payer/"description", lest one
inadvertently mess up one's notes? I've got lots of accounts where I
normally don't enter splits, just one debit and one credit, but every
once in a while need to use the split function when there are multiple
debit or multiple credit entries for a given transaction.


> 
> It's the transaction notes that get printed into the "memo" field of a
> printed check.
> 
> When you quickfill a transaction it pulls in the notes and memo fields
> into the new transaction.  This is considered a feature, not a bug.
> 
> Unfortunately the terms "memo" and "notes" are kind of confused
> throughout the app and docs.
> 
> Hope this helps clear up some of the confusion.
> 
> > HTH,
> > Maf.
> 
> >> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> >> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
> 
> -derek