Planning future expenditure

[Paddy Landau]

Thank you for your further comments, Steve.

> 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.

Entering projected transactions when they are planned could be fine if the
transactions were either rare or one-offs.

But what about transactions that continue indefinitely? You would have to
enter, say, 13 months in advance, and then remember to add a new one of each
transaction every month.

Or, for annual transactions, to remember to add them each year. And so forth
for quarterly, bi-annual, every 15 months, every two years, even every three
years (yes, I do have instances of every one of those).

What happens when the value of a specific set of transactions changes? You
would have to go through all the future transactions, pick out the ones that
have changed, and modify them.

It is awfully time-consuming and error-prone when done that way, and
furthermore does not permit easy "what-if" scenarios. ("What if we cut down
on our groceries?" "What if we sell the car and buy one that uses less
fuel?" "What if we purchase this widget on hire purchase?" etc.)

/OK, so here's another question./

*Could this be solved by writing an add-on?* (I seem to remember that
GnuCash allows add-ons.) If so, it may be worth my while to pay someone to
program it. (Donations welcome...)

(I would have simply purchased Quicken, but I need this on three different
computers for three different family members, not all running the same
operating system, making the cost of Quicken too high for strictly personal
purposes.)

Frankly, if GnuCash were to have this facility, it would be an awesome
application, to my knowledge the only one to rival commercial alternatives.



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