Planning future expenditure

[Steven Hale]

> Message: 8
> Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2012 04:51:25 -0800 (PST)
> From: Paddy Landau <paddy at landau.ws>
> Subject: Re: Planning future expenditure
> Message-ID: <1354452685685-4658257.post at n4.nabble.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> This is so frustrating! How can a money manager not have a planning feature?

I think the issue is that, primarily, GnuCash is accounting software
not financial planning software.
i.e its purpose is to record what happened, not what is going to
happen or what might happen.

> I feel that your method, while it would work, is messy and not a good workaround.

Personally, I use a method similar to David.  I enter all transactions
as soon as I know about them even if the date is in the future.  All
future transactions are separated by a blue line in the account ledger
which makes them easy to see.  This way, I can see exactly what is
coming out of my account and what my projected account balance will be
if I take no further action.

I suppose it's no ideal, but it works for me.  All my scheduled
transactions for the month get entered at the end of the previous
month, so I can see what is coming up.  When the amount is known and
shown by the bank, I update the transaction if required and click the
"n" to mark the transaction as "c" cleared.  Finally when the
statement arrives it gets marked off as reconciled.

Steve.