Transactions with split dates

[Michael Hendry]

On Wed, 2011-05-04 at 11:36 +0100, Jonathan Ellis wrote:
> Is it possible to enter a transaction with different dates for the two
> halves of the split?
> 
> The reason I ask is that when a transfer happens between two of my bank
> accounts (for example from my current account to my credit card or from
> Paypal to either my current account or credit card) there is a time lag
> (usually a few days) between the credit or debit being sent from one bank
> and being received by the other bank. This means that the same transaction
> would have different dates in the two accounts.
> 
> When I download the statements, I have to choose whether to keep the date
> from one statement or the other. Sometimes, Gnucash might not even recognise
> the transaction as being the same one so I end up with duplicate
> transactions with different dates.
> 
> This makes it very hard to reconcile the accounts as the date will be wrong
> and so the reconciled balance will be wrong in one of the accounts or there
> will be duplicate transactions.

Isn't this analogous to the gap between your writing a cheque and its
being cleared through your account?

I would regard the date of a transaction as being the date it is
initiated rather than the date it is completed, and enter details of
cheques as they are written rather than when they reach the bank
statement.

What problem are you trying to solve by putting in two separate dates?

Michael