Transaction Reconciliation

[Colin Law]

On 25 October 2012 19:43, C. Andrews Lavarre <alavarre at gmail.com> wrote:
> Sorry, left off the group.
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject:        Re: Transaction Reconciliation
> Date:   Thu, 25 Oct 2012 12:34:52 -0400
> From:   C. Andrews Lavarre <alavarre at gmail.com>
> To:     Colin Law <clanlaw at googlemail.com>
>
>
>
> On 10/25/2012 11:56 AM, Colin Law wrote:
>> I don't think I have ever changed that field manually. Or is there a
>> use case that I am not aware of?
> Well I agree that the reconciliation screenis the final step, but
> preparing for it requires examining the splits in the transaction and
> making adjustments, etc. in the register.
>
> For example, I do a lot of foreign travel. When I record my expenses I
> can put in the foreign currency amount exactly if the account is in the
> foreign currency, but if it is a dollar account then the underlying and
> offsetting accounts are in dollars.
>
> So I put in estimates of the offsetting dollar amounts, but have to wait
> for a statement to determine what actually got charged with the exchange
> rate at the time of posting by the merchant's bank.
>
> For example. I buy something for GBP 1.00 with my debit card. I check
> the exchange rate and it looks like it is £1 = $1.60. Since the debit
> card account is in dollars I enter the amount as -$1.60 in the debit
> card account and +$1.6 the offsetting account (e.g., Expenses: Beer).
>
> But the merchant's bank doesn't post the transaction until the next day.
> By that time the exchange rate is actually £1 = $1.61, so *my* bank is
> charged $1.61, which is what shows on my statement.
>
> So I want to edit the transaction splits (Alt+A, P) to make the
> correction in order to balance the debit card account (as well as the
> offsetting accounts).
>
> This cannot be done from the reconciliation window. (You can do Ctrl+E
> in the reconciliation window to "edit" a transaction but all that does
> is opens a new register for the account and the problem remains the
> same: You have to use the mouse to change n to c for a transaction split.)

I don't understand this.  When you see, in the reconciliation window,
that the amount needs corrrecting then double click it in the
reconcile window.  This takes you to the transaction itself.  Correct
the value then select the the reconcile window (which is still open),
and it will have been automatically updated.  There is no need to
change the n to c in the register.

>
> Yes I could just make all the adjustments, then use the Reconciliation
> screen to check them off but that seems like double work. Better to
> change n to c while you're working on the particular transaction. That
> way you've recorded that you have corrected that transaction, and can
> leave it and come back later (say, after another beer... :-) and pick up
> where you left off. The other way you'd have to back over all your
> transactions to find out which have been corrected and which have not
> and that's a lot of beer transactions, especially if you're visiting
> England during the cask ale festival.
>
> At present the only way to record your corrections in a way that is
> visible that they have been entered is with the mouse, AFAICT