? Corruption of reconciliation history

[Michael Hendry]

On 9 Apr 2013, at 10:56, Michael Hendry <hendry.michael at gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> On 9 Apr 2013, at 10:49, "Maf. King" <maf at chilwell.net> wrote:
> 
>> On Tue 9 April 13 10:26:02 Michael Hendry wrote:
>>  
>> > > Maf.
>> > 
>> > Thanks, Maf.
>> > 
>> > I've done some investigation, and found that a GnuCash file saved on 19/2/13
>> > has the correct Reconcile information (Statement Date: 05/03/2013, as
>> > above), and all subsequent GnuCash files say 05/02/2013.
>> > 
>> > I'm not sure what is stored in all the LOG files, and whether it is possible
>> > to get a listing of all transactions which were recorded (i.e. entered
>> > using GnuCash) after a certain date. If this is possible, I could start
>> > from the "last-known-good" file of 19/02/13, and re-enter all of these
>> > transactions (except the faulty one, if I can identify it), which would be
>> > much less of a chore than going through my cheque book stubs and credit
>> > card receipts to get back in step.
>> > 
>> > Michael
>> > 
>>  
>> Hi Michael,
>>  
>> Before you start faffing with backups and re-entering data, does the current working file let you reconcile completely if you just ignore the fact that the starting balance is off?
> 
> I've nothing to lose by trying this, so I'll go for it later today - two Springer Spaniels are making more urgent demands for my attention!
> 
> Thanks.
> 
>>  
>> The log files don't, AFAIK, contain things like account creation/editing, business objects, budgets and possibly SX information.  But they would let you get "normal" transactions more easily than re-entering data.  
>> I stil think it most likely that you have inadvertently chanded or deleted an already-reconciled transaction, possibly from the "other" account side, rathe than a GC bug or inconsistancy.  
>>  
>> Log replays would probably still contain that txn so you may still end up in the same place if you just drag logs in again.  There is a "reset warnings" option, possibly in the preferences which might help to at least reduce the likelyhood of this happening.
>>  
>> Maf.
> 

OK, I've now gone through the reconciliation process (although I had to "park" it, because the ending balance didn't match the bank's version), and find that the reconciliation is out by £1509.57.

Earlier today I had reconciled several credit card accounts without any problem.

In the short term, I suppose I can simply accept that the reconciliation is out by this figure, or put in a dummy transaction to bring the account into line with the bank statement, but I'd rather fix it properly. There aren't any sore thumbs sticking out in the reconciliation window (e.g. transactions which were reconciled in the past and have been accidentally unreconciled), so I suppose the explanation is that one or more transactions have been deleted rather than just unreconciled.

It would be helpful to know how GnuCash keeps track of past reconciliations - it always prompts with a statement date a month on from the last reconciliation, so there is presumably some explicit record of a reconciliation having taken place - if this includes the reconciled balance at that time (the Starting Balance for the next time), the loss of this record would obviously cause problems.

I'll obviously have to RTFM to find out about replaying the logs, to see if I can trace the onset of the problem - I did suffer a number of "System Panics" a couple of weeks ago, when trying to install a printer connected via Firewire (it works fine via USB, but although it's detected by the computer (new iMac 27" with OSX 10.8.3) when connected via a Firewire cable, a crash occurs when I try to Add it). It's possible that I had GnuCash running at that time, but I think the fault in the reconciliation history occurred before these crashes.

Michael