[novice level] how to accomplish this scenario

[David]

Harry--

The others have answered for you, generally, but let me add the following: 

WRT item 1: Take a look at Chapter 4.6 in the Tutorial and concepts guide. More directly, I would note that Gnucash is intended primarily to account for existing transactions, so its ability to do what you ask is limited.

WRT item 2: Look at chpater 2.2 in the same guide; it explains the accounts concept.

WRT item 3: Gnucash supports a number of import and online modes. There are extensive online resources readily available, even at your pay grade.

David



_____________________________________________
From: casi <casi at maanreri.de>
Sent: Tue Jun 12 21:46:57 PDT 2012
To: Harry Putnam <reader at newsguy.com>
Cc: gnucash-user at lists.gnucash.org
Subject: Re: [novice level] how to accomplish this scenario


Hi Harry,

also not being an expert, maybe this is starting point:

1) I don't think that there is a "payment" reminder function for
transactions that a due in the near future. GnuCash is a "only" booking
things that have occured. But you might want to play arround with the
"scheduled transaction" feature. If there are scheduled transaction due
between two GnuCash sessions, then can be notified at the next start of
GnuCash about those transactions. This is also acts as some kind of
reminder, but it reminds you of things that have automatically been
entered in the near past.
I am not using this, so just read the help and wiki pages about
"scheduled transactions", or simply try it out (I have played around
with it once, and I got the clue out of it without spending much time
with documentation).

2) For centralization GnuCash is definitely a very good solution (not to
say, the best that I know of). By setting up a corresponding account
tree (or even parallel trees), it is fairly easy to get any kind of
analysis out of your finances, on total level, or monthly, or quarterly,
or yearly, whether you meet your budget expectations, etc. (well, maybe
not and kind of analysis, but certainly a lot). It might depend on the
account tree structure, so take care when setting this up (or: you might
need to refine it to finally get what you want).
Please play around with the Report feature.
Only the future thingy from 1) might not be there.

3) I am not using GnuCash with online banking, but what I understand
from following the mail discussions, you can (if your banks support it)
get your transaction records fed into GnuCash via the internet directly
from your bank, but you cannot place transaction orders. But better,
someone else is confirming this...

Kind regards,
/Carsten


On Tue, 2012-06-12 at 21:16 -0400, Harry Putnam wrote:
> David Carlson <carlson.dl at sbcglobal.net> writes:
> 
> > On 6/11/2012 4:11 PM, Harry Putnam wrote:
> >> Running GC 2.4.10 on win7
> >>
> >> I've not got much out of the help guide under help menu... not to say
> >> it isn't a good one, but it starts right out with telling of concepts
> >> that are above my paygrade.
> >>
> >> I'm posting here in the hope that some experienced users can tell me
> >> before I spend as much more time as I have already painstakingly
> >> inserting lots of detailed info, only to find I'm either not
> >> understanding what should happen or expecting things that are not in
> >> the cards.
> >>
> >> My needs are very fairly simple, just home budgeting type use.
> >> Maybe a little beyond simple due to having my finance setup strung out
> >> between 3-4 banks.
> >>
> >> 1)
> >> I hoped to be able after inserting all income and all bills to be able
> >> to see a presentation showing a months worth of activity including due
> >> dates and etc. that I could just glance at and know when to do various
> >> actions that will allow me to avoid those nasty $34 dollar overdrafts.
> >>
> >> It would be a serious plus if dates that are close at hand would show
> >> up in some attention getting fashion
> >>
> >> Another big plus if I can print out such a display from GC.
> >>
> >> 2) My finances are scattered across at least 3 banks. Since there are
> >> good reasons why that is the case, I hoped to centralize all that in
> >> GC so that the display mentioned above would contain info from all
> >> banks.
> >>
> >> 3)
> >> I hoped to be able to do my online banking work through GC.
> >> ------- --------- ---=--- --------- --------
> >>
> >> Can any of you experienced folks tell me if the above things can be
> >> done with GC, if I keep pounding away at the help files, online
> >> resources and bugging this group?
> 
> 
> > If you know any youngsters who are computer-savvy, ask one of them to
> > help you.
> 
> Such astonishingly good help and in such short order. Thank you so
> much for taking so much time and effort for a detailed and very
> `useful' reply.
> 
> 
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