GnuCash

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

Dan Smith <dansbox at byu.net> writes:

> On Jan 22, 2012, at 6:30 PM, John Ralls wrote:
>
>> You can set up your various reports by selecting the appropriate accounts in the Options and saving them as Custom Reports.
>
> Just guessing about what's wanted, but I think what's missing from
> GnuCash in comparison to the features in these other programs is the
> ability to automatically select accounts based on certain properties
> rather than manually selecting each account every time a new report is
> wanted.  Plus, ideally, the report would be dynamic, so that I didn't
> have to go back and update all my reports when I added a new account.

Unfortunately this last issue is due to an artifact of the way the Query
infrastructure works.  There is no way currently to say "Split ->
Account IsAMemberOf Account(SubTree)".  So the way this is implemented
is to literally flatten out the Account Subtree and make a series of
"Split->Account == Acct OR ..." for each account in the subtree.

So alas, doing what you want is not possible without some major overhaul
of the Query infrastructure.

> Right now the "Include Sub-Accounts" option provides a certain degree
> of automated account selection, but it's limited to the hierarchy, so
> it can't handle cross-cutting concerns like what is being requested
> here.

That's a UI issue which would be easier to solve.

> Personally, what I'd like to see is a many-to-many relationship
> between Accounts and "Groups"; features like placeholder
> accounts/hierarchies, the account type (Asset, Liability, Bank, etc.),
> and maybe even the "hidden" flag could be collapsed into Group-Account
> relationships.  The UI could present Groups both hierarchically (as in
> the Accounts Page) and as tags/keywords.

An oft-requested feature.  Patches are always welcome!

> Of course, even if there was a general consensus that this was the
> right model, I doubt anyone is ambitious enough to try to redesign the
> whole application in this way...  Patched-on, modest support for
> tagging might have better luck.

Agreed.   Are you volunteering?  :)

> —Dan

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-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available