orphans and reconciliation. noob question

[Derek Atkins]

Dennis Powless <claven123 at gmail.com> writes:

> I do something similar. ... enter the bal from statement (ending) and unmark
> the items so the sums are zero at the bottom, then check each item (in your
> case 19 items) then the recon bal and ending statement bal should equal. 
>
> If this is the first time recon this account you can start over.... unclear
> the transactions in the visa account and delete the orphan transaction.  Then
> start the recon process over.  Correct, Derek??

Yep, you can unreconcile the transactions by converting the 'y' to 'n'
(or 'c') in the register.  You will be warned for each transaction you
try to modify.  Note that if you tell GnuCash to stop warning you for
this process you should clear your warnings when you're done via Actions
-> Reset Warnings otherwise you may accidentally change a reconciled
split later causing you problems.

> If this is new... push comes to shove you can redo the entire visa account and
> delete the whole thing.... you will have to re enter the 20 transactions
> though....
>
> Good luck... welcome

-derek

> D

PS: I got a private-mail response that my previous suggestion worked.

> On Mar 28, 2013 4:59 PM, "Derek Atkins" <derek at ihtfp.com> wrote:
>
>     Hi,
>    
>     First, when you click on reconcile and it asks you for the reconcile date,
>     you should enter not only the closing date from your statement but also
>     the closing amount.  Your issue is that you are telling GnuCash that the
>     statement included the 20th item, so of course it is waiting for you to
>     mark it off.  Don't do that.  Tell GnuCash the correct balance.
>    
>     Second, you do not have to pre-clear the items as part of your process.
>     You can choose to, of course, and reconciling the account will pre-check
>     all cleared items prior to the reconcile date.  However you can just go
>     ahead and check them off during reconcile, which IMHO is faster than
>     clearing and then reconciling.
>    
>     -derek
>    
>     On Thu, March 28, 2013 3:48 pm, marty poulsen wrote:
>     >
>     >
>     > Distilled facts:
>     >
>     > I am running gnucash 2.4.11.
>     >
>     > I have, among others, a gnucash account for my bank checking account and
>     a
>     > gnucash account for visa.
>     >
>     > Lets say from a starting balance of 0.00 in the visa account, I charge
>     20
>     > separate items on the card. All items are posted to the visa account,
>     each
>     > with the default NEW (n) attribute.  The twentieth item was charged on
>     the
>     > closing day of the account, and it too was posted at time of purchase.
>     > Arguendo, this date is, say, March 30, 2013. The visa statement arrives,
>     > containing the first 19 items as of the close of business on March 30,
>     > 2013.  But, the 20-th item is not listed on the statement, presumably
>     > because it was not submitted in time to make the closing date.  It will
>     > appear, of course, on next months visa statement.
>     >
>     > I check the 19 postings against my visa statement. No errors are found,
>     > and I change each of the 19 items from "NEW" to "CLEARED"  n->c.  I push
>     > the RECONCILE button, and specify a statement date of March 30, 2013.
>     >
>     >
>     > WHAT I EXPECT: I expect gnucash to to examine only the cleared items,
>     > calculate the sum of such items, and present such sum to me in the
>     > reconciliation window, such that when I push FINISH my gnucash checking
>     > account is debitted in the amount of such sum, and the visa account
>     > reflects a payment in the amount of such sum.
>     >
>     > WHAT I FIND, HOWEVER: ... frankly perplexes me.  The reconciliation
>     > process includes the uncleared  (ie NEW) final charge (the 20-th charge
>     of
>     > my shopping spree lol),  and because the reconciled balance is not zero,
>     > will not allow me to FINISH the reconciliation.  When I BALANCE, gnucash
>     > creates an orphan transaction in the amount of the unreconciled balance,
>     > and posts this transaction to the gnucash Orphan account as well as the
>     > visa account. Both the orphan transaction and the 20-th charge remain as
>     > NEW transactions. And the orphan transaction reflects as a yet another
>     > (21-st) charge to the account.  (Intuitively, it seems to me that a
>     > balancing transaction should reflect as a payment, not a charge.  But
>     ...
>     > I dont know.)
>     >
>     >
>     > How do I reconcile my visa account from this point, and have gnucash
>     debit
>     > my checking account and credit a visa payment (as I know it does on the
>     > third reconciliation panel) ?
>     >
>     > In other words, what do I do with this "orphan transaction"?
>     >
>     > Thanks in advance.
>     >
>     > marty
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>
>     --
>            Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
>            derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
>            Computer and Internet Security Consultant
>    
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-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available