reconcile account containing arbitrary categories

... offonoffoffonoff at gmail.com
Thu Jan 6 19:13:29 EST 2011


On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 4:32 PM, Anthony Dardis <adardis at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 06 Jan 2011 17:10:33 -0500, ... <offonoffoffonoff at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>  On Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 9:35 PM, Anthony Dardis <adardis at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>  Hmm. That's what "Include subaccounts" is supposed to do. What happens
>>> when
>>> you check that?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  Maybe I am not using the reconcile function correctly.  I just get two
>> separate lists, one income and the other outgone, and I can check off
>> which
>> transactions actually happened. It does include the subaccounts, but it
>> doesn't show me how each transaction effects the total balance, and it
>> inconveniently separates the income and outgone.
>>
>>
>> What I was doing to reconcile before I made the sub accounts, without
>> using
>> the reconcile function, was to just compare the bank statement with the
>> checking account account.  The transactions would be ordered by date and I
>> could see the account total after each transaction and compare that with
>> the
>> bank statement.
>>
>> That works fine unless the account contains sub accounts, then I only see
>> transactions that were made from the parent account but not the sub
>> accounts.  When I "open subaccounts" rather than "open account" from the
>> main account list, I get all the transactions but not a running balance
>> after each transaction, which is so helpful in reconciling.
>>
>> -elliot
>>
>
> (a) the running totals in your accounts typically won't exactly match those
> on your bank statement, for instance if you write a check on 1/10 and the
> bank shows it clearing on 1/16, hence after some things you record on 1/12,
> etc.; (b) the only total that really matters is the one at the end of the
> statement period; if that's correct, then there's no need to worry about
> each step along the way. You're right that the running total could help in
> locating a discrepancy, but it could be a struggle if there are enough
> differences in the sequence. (FWIW, Quicken's reconcile window is
> essentially the same as GnuCash's, and doesn't offer running totals [unless
> I'm misremembering ...].)
>

I just enter things into GNU cash on the date the bank recognises them.  So,
the check on 1/10 I would not enter into gnucash until 1/16 when it clears.
otherwise, if I wrote the check on 1/30, and it didn't clear until the next
statement, then the total at the end of my statement period wouldn't match
GNU cash either.

I'm sure there is a whole world of accounting discussions to have on that
subject.

And the transaction by transaction totals wont be identical anyway, because
per day the transactions dont have a fixed sequence.  But at the end of each
day I can check the balances and see on what day a discrepancy happened.

But GNU cash does not have a way of doing what I want?

thanks,
Elliot


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