Batch/scheduled transactions

[PK]

Sorry John, this was supposed to be reply-all...


1) The SX for getting paid was split to just distribute it over the
subaccounts so it would be there when something was paid. Some are regular
bills, which I do have a separate SX defined to run on specific dates that
pulls from it's respective subaccount (as you mentioned in #2), but some
are just 'holding' pots for less strictly scheduled items (dog food, kennel
costs, vet bills, etc). Using the 2 week frequency still doesn't account
for the months with a 3rd payday.

2) I haven't had a ton of time to experiment with different ways of doing
this, so I wasn't sure if I had just taken the hard way on the first stab
and there was a easier way I could try. It seems to make sense to me so
far, so unless I run across another built-in method that looks easier, I'll
eave it.

3) Win7, 64-bit. That does sound familiar, though I see it in the SX edit
form. I'll reinstall 2.6 and try the ledger form and see if it behaves the
same.

------
Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature.


On Tue, Dec 31, 2013 at 11:41 AM, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:

>
> On Dec 31, 2013, at 9:14 AM, PK <fourteenone at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I'm new to gnucash and have 3 questions.
> > 1) I'm trying to set up what I would call a 'manually run batch
> > transaction.' I get paid biweekly, but most bills are monthly, so for the
> > majority of the year the first paycheck in the month goes towards some
> > subset of the bills and the second paycheck goes towards the other
> subset.
> > The scheduled transactions and splits seem to be close to what I want,
> but
> > I'm not sure it's the best way. If paydays were on the 1st/15th, then the
> > scheduled transactions would be perfect, but since it's biweekly, twice a
> > year a wrench is thrown into the schedule. I'd like to have three
> > 'scheduled' transactions or batch transactions defined (one for the first
> > payday, one for the second payday, and one for the extra one that happens
> > twice a year), and ideally, I'd have an option to "manually run this
> > transaction/batch" depending on what payday it is. Right now I set the
> > schedule frequency to be 'none' and when I want to run it I change it to
> > frequency 'once', set the date and hit OK and it adds it. The issue I've
> > had so far is forgetting to change it back to frequency 'none' and saving
> > after adjusting something and it runs the whole thing again. Is there a
> > better way to do this?
> >
> > 2) Within each of those three batches described above, I have a single
> > transaction that is split like this:
> > Payday deposit -> Assets:Checking:_Remaining -> (IN: $100.00)
> > Payday deposit -> Income:Salary -> (OUT: $100.00)
> > TV Setaside -> Assets:Checking:TV -> (IN: $15.00)
> > TV Setaside -> Assets:Checking_Remaining -> (OUT:$15.00)
> > Elec Setaside -> Assets:Checking:Electricity -> (IN: $20.00)
> > Elec Setaside -> Assets:Checking:_Remaining -> (OUT: $20.00)
> > etc
> >
> > So at the end of it all, Assets:Checking is the actual account with
> > 'subaccounts' that each have money set aside for when that bill is due
> and
> > Assets:Checking:_Remaining is what's leftover from the paycheck. Is this
> > the appropriate way to handle/use 'subaccounts'? Should Assets:Checking
> be
> > marked as a 'placeholder' or not?
> >
> > 3) In 2.6 I'm not able to create scheduled transactions. When I enter a
> > split, it clears the whole line when I hit enter. I did manage to get two
> > lines entered at one point, but when I went to save it says "The
> Scheduled
> > Transaction Editor cannot not automatically balance this transaction." Is
> > this a bug or known issue in 2.6? 2.4.13 seems to be fine.
> >
>
> #1 In the SX Edit dialog, frequency tab, select "weekly" in the Frequency
> list box
> and "2" in the "Every" spin-box for a bi-weekly getting-paid SX. ISTM your
> bill transactions
> would be monthly, and you'd set up two transactions, one for each set of
> bills.
>
> #2: If it works for you, it's appropriate. Since you presumably make the
> actual payment
> transactions from the sub-accounts, you might want to make Checking a
> placeholder to
> protect yourself from accidentally entering a transaction there, but it
> makes no
> difference to anything GnuCash does.
>
> #3 sounds like https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=720555 , which
> I thought that
> I'd fixed. What OS are you using?
>
> Regards,
> John Ralls
>
>