Unexpected Cash Flow report behavior. Help?

... offonoffoffonoff at gmail.com
Mon Nov 25 11:36:19 EST 2013


It would be nice if there was a summary of the important problems with the
version for download that was very clear and available.

For instance, the bugzilla search for version 2.4.13 does not list the cash
flow report issue.  Nor is it listed on the "report bugs" page you linked
me to:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?product=GnuCash&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&component=Reports

As a user downloading the product, I would like to know what accounting
related bugs I am working with.  It would be best if this was on the
downloads page right next to the version to be downloaded, and included all
errors present in that version that affect double entry accounting and
reporting validity.  If the labels get cut off for being too long or there
are other imperfections in the user interface, I know that's just part of a
work in process.  If using an exchange rate breaks double entry accounting (
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=708941) or reports are giving
untrue values, then users need to know about this.

I really do appreciate all of your efforts and understand that I am relying
on voluntary contributions.  I offer this suggestion as a suggestion to
improve the utility of GNUCash to its users and increase our confidence in
the product we are using.

Thank you,
  Elliot


On Sun, Nov 24, 2013 at 1:59 PM, Carsten Rinke <carsten.rinke at gmx.de> wrote:

>  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
> http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Bugzilla
>
> For all bugs on reports you can try this
>
> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?product=GnuCash&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&component=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 <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* <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
>> >>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>> >>> 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
>> >> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>> >> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>> >> -----
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>> >>
>> >
>>
>
>
>


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