Auto splitting for transactions?

[David Carlson]

On 6/16/2013 5:03 PM, Fred Bone wrote:
> On 14 June 2013 at 13:44, Derek Atkins said:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Nico <elhansa at gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> Hi!
>>> I'm looking gnucash and so far seems really great, congratulation to the
>>> developers!!!
>>>
>>> I saw there is a function for splitting transactions manually, but need
>>> to know if some kind of "auto-splitting" could be accomplished. Ideally
>>> the function I need is to have a special account type where I could set
>>> percentages to different associated accounts, so when using this account
>>> the ammount of the transaction would be split accross them. With an
>>> example.
>>>
>>> -I have the a common Cash accounts, and three more accounts name A, B
>>> and C. -I have a special account name Special, this account distribute
>>> it's ammount 40% A, 40% B, 20% C. -When doing a $100 deposit from Cash
>>> account to Special account, behind the scenes what I'm really doing is
>>> to transferring $ 40 to A, $40 to B, and $20 to C.
>>>
>>> Hope my requirement is clear with this example :)
>> Alas, no, gnucash doesn't have this for general transaction input.
>>
>> The only way to do something like this is via the Business Invoice/Bill
>> entry where you can set up a tax table that would compute tax rates and
>> auto-split those taxes into accounts.
>>
>> But no, there is no way to do it using hand-entered transactions
>> automatically.
> Creative use of the SX feature might come close. I have a messy 
> irregularly-recurring txn that I use an SX for. The procedure is a little 
> tedious:
> -Open Scheduled Transaction Editor
> -Find the right one
> -Edit it
> -Update its Start Date to today/yesterday
> -Close it
> -Close the Editor
> -Run Since-Last-Run
> -Enter value(s) for this time round
> but as mine has up to eight calculated splits it saves a lot of 
> head-scratching trying to remember how much of what goes where.
>
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Your transactions are more complicated than the ones I manipulate
monthly, but my general cycle for these might help you streamline your
cycle  in some cases:

1. Each such transaction is set as a scheduled transaction with the
Reminder status set for a comfortable number of days in advance(I
usually set them 63 days in advance).
2. When they appear in the Since Last Run assistant I click on Review
Created Transactions and click on every reminder and change it to
To-Create.  In a few cases I have formulas that require a number to be
entered as well.  I personally have not had good luck with those, however.

Here is the part that I consider important: 

3. As I review the newly created transactions I make any corrections
necessary to those.  Then I usually know how the following monthly
transaction will differ, so I right click on the transaction and select
Schedule...  This opens that scheduled transaction in the SX editor,
circumventing the need to search through the Scheduled Transaction List
for most of my repeated transactions.
4. I only have one transaction that has a schedule that requires
frequent adjustment of the date.  That is one that occurs on the third
Thursday of each month.  That needs to be fixed about twice a year when
there are 5 weeks between instances.  So far I have not convinced the
developers to add such a choice to the list of available repeat patterns.

David C