How To Do My Own Transaction Matching

prl prl at ozemail.com.au
Thu Dec 12 04:02:08 EST 2013


On 12/12/2013 16:10, Tommy Trussell wrote:
> ... When I have a scheduled transaction for a variable bill (utility, 
> credit card) GnuCash allows EITHER use a variable for the amount and 
> the system will prompt for it when the transaction gets created, or 
> one can enter a "typical" or "placeholder" amount in the transaction, 
> and edit it after the transaction gets created. In either case, I use 
> the online notice or statement I receive from the company to enter the 
> correct amount on the correct date. (Just like I did when I got paper 
> bills.) I use the Scheduled Transaction "notify in advance" feature so 
> I know to watch for the transaction about the time I usually get the 
> bill, and I have the transaction pre-set for the date it usually gets 
> drafted. However I can examine the bill and adjust the date the 
> company says they plan to draft the account. 
For variable bills, I enter the amount into the transaction template 
when I receive the bills, then they are created with the correct amount. 
I schedule them to be put into the register 5 days in advance, so I can 
see what's coming up.
> ... I can understand how you might feel this way -- I spend some 
> number of minutes every week chasing down bills and receipts to enter 
> into GnuCash. HOWEVER if I just relied upon the imported transactions 
> as they came through the bank, I might not catch any fraudulent or 
> erroneous ones. Fortunately I haven't had many over the years, but 
> there have been a few.
I once found that I'd been charged twice for my home and contents 
insurance annual payment!
> Personally, I am not ready to rely on imported transactions and stop 
> keying in my receipts and bills to assign accounts and amounts. With 
> the reconciling process I catch monetary mistakes, then at tax time I 
> catch errors in the accounts assignments. I believe I would have a lot 
> harder time getting the accounts right via imported transactions for 
> my credit card, for example. (I often have more than one type of 
> transaction from the same store.) But I believe I understand what 
> you're hoping to achieve with the transaction importer, and that's the 
> point of this thread.
If all transactions are imported, there seems little point in doing a 
reconciliation at all.

Peter



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