Unexpected Cash Flow report behavior. Help?

Carsten Rinke carsten.rinke at gmx.de
Sun Nov 24 14:59:27 EST 2013


   Hi Elliot,
   yes, 2.5.8 already contains the fix, so you can go for an upgrade to
   get rid of this behaviour.
   The bug handling is documented here
   [1]http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Bugzilla
   For all bugs on reports you can try this
   [2]https://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?product=GnuCash&bug_status=UN
   CONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&compon
   ent=Reports
   You will see that there are many "old" bugs.
   The miscalculation on Cash Flow Reports have been reported back in
   2.2.x.
   That is the point about voluntary contributions...
   Kind regards,
   /Carsten

   On 11/24/2013 08:29 PM, ... wrote:

   Thanks,
   I am indeed using 2.4.x.
   Did the cash flow report always not work? Or is it not unit tested?
   It's a little unnerving to come across bugs like this, and my
   co-workers aren't as sold on open source as I am.  Is there a
   comprehensive list of known bugs in the stable version?
   So, using 2.5.8 is a possible quick solution?
   I really do appreciate your efforts.
   -Elliot

   On Sun, Nov 24, 2013 at 8:02 AM, Cat P <[3]barking at gmx.com> wrote:

     Thanks Carsten, good to know it's a bug instead of expected
     behaviour.
     I'd noticed this with split transactions but I thought it was my
     expectations that were wrong.
     Cat

   On 24/11/2013 09:43, Carsten Rinke wrote:
   > Hi ... <010010>,
   >
   > could it be you are using GnuCash 2.4.x?
   >
   > Then I suppose your are seeing

     > *Bug 622778*
     <[4]https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=622778>
     > -Miscalculation in cashflow reports

   > which will be fixed in GnuCash 2.6.
   >
   > Kind regards,
   > /Carsten
   >
   > On 11/23/2013 11:14 AM, Cat P wrote:
   >> Your cash flow report is behaving as expected given your
   transactions.
   >> You seem to want a different report.
   >>
   >> Cat
   >>
   >>
   >>
   >> On 22/11/2013 19:49, ... wrote:
   >>> We are a private school.  Our CPA suggested we keep track of our
   tuition
   >>> assistance as an expense.  That is, although some families pay
   less, they
   >>> do so because they have been allocated some amount of the tuition
   we are
   >>> willing to forgo.
   >>>
   >>> As an example, start with a brand new account.  Put in only one
   transaction:
   >>>
   >>> Income:Tuition                       10,000
   >>> Assets:Checking Account        5,000
   >>> Expenses:Tuition Assistance    5,000
   >>>
   >>> As far as cash goes, there is only $5,000.  Technically, the client
   owed
   >>> $10,000, but we forgive $5,000 of it and keep track of it as an
   expense.
   >>> I'd expect the cash flow report to look like this:
   >>>
   >>> Cash Flow - 01/01/2013 to 12/31/2013
   >>> Selected Accounts
   >>> Assets
   >>>       * Assets:checking account
   >>>       * Imbalance-USD
   >>>
   >>> --------------
   >>>
   >>> Money into selected accounts comes from
   >>>     Income:tuition                 $5,000.00
   >>>
   >>>     Money In                       $5,000.00
   >>>
   >>> ----------------
   >>>
   >>> Money out of selected accounts goes to
   >>>     Expenses:tuition assistance    $0.00
   >>>
   >>>     Money Out                      $0.00
   >>>
   >>> ----------------
   >>>
   >>>     Difference                     $5,000.00
   >>>
   >>> But instead, it looks like this:
   >>>
   >>>
   >>> Cash Flow - 01/01/2013 to 12/31/2013
   >>> Selected Accounts
   >>> Assets
   >>>       * Assets:checking account
   >>>       * Imbalance-USD
   >>>
   >>> --------------
   >>>
   >>> Money into selected accounts comes from
   >>>     Income:tuition                 $10,000.00
   >>>
   >>>     Money In                       $10,000.00
   >>>
   >>> ----------------
   >>>
   >>> Money out of selected accounts goes to
   >>>     Expenses:tuition assistance    $5,000.00
   >>>
   >>>     Money Out                      $5,000.00
   >>>
   >>> ----------------
   >>>
   >>>     Difference                     $5,000.00
   >>>
   >>> This looks to me like $5,000 came out of the checking account, when
   really
   >>> there is no such transaction.  The real reason this bugs me is
   because
   >>> sometimes we forgive all tuition for an individual.  Then, the
   transaction
   >>> for the person does not have anything going into the checking
   account and
   >>> so is not included in the Asset Cash Flow report.
   >>>
   >>> Finally, often there are transactions that accidentally have a
   meaningless
   >>> zero in, zero out, imbalance "transaction".  Then these
   transactions show
   >>> up in a Cash Flow report for the imbalance account.  So, if there
   was
   >>> accidentally a zero in, zero out, meaningless transaction
   associated with
   >>> the checking account, it would show up as cash flow going through
   the
   >>> checking account!
   >>>
   >>> I am not an accountant.  I don't know what an accountant is
   expecting to
   >>> see.  But I feel like this behavior potentially makes the cash flow
   report
   >>> meaningless.  If this is expected behavior, there should at least
   be a
   >>> function that removes all of the zero in, zero out splits.
   >>>
   >>> Will our accountant be confused by GNUcash's Cash Flow report
   working like
   >>> this?
   >>>
   >>> Thanks,
   >>>   Elliot
   >>> _______________________________________________
   >>> gnucash-user mailing list
   >>> [5]gnucash-user at gnucash.org
   >>> [6]https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
   >>> -----
   >>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
   >>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
   >>>
   >> _______________________________________________
   >> gnucash-user mailing list
   >> [7]gnucash-user at gnucash.org
   >> [8]https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
   >> -----
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   >> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
   >>
   >

References

   1. http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Bugzilla
   2. https://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?product=GnuCash&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&component=Reports
   3. mailto:barking at gmx.com
   4. https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=622778
   5. mailto:gnucash-user at gnucash.org
   6. https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
   7. mailto:gnucash-user at gnucash.org
   8. https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user


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