New account type

Sam Liddicott sam at liddicott.com
Fri Oct 18 09:31:49 EDT 2013


On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 2:27 PM, Colin Law <clanlaw at googlemail.com> wrote:

> On 18 October 2013 14:02, Sam Liddicott <sam at liddicott.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 1:50 PM, Colin Law <clanlaw at googlemail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> On 18 October 2013 13:47, John G Sullivan <sullij_27615 at att.net> wrote:
> >> > The process which your wife is using seems backwards. Why not start
> >> > from where the money originates. If she paid out of pocket, just use
> >> > cash as the base account, and enter the expense as the account field.
> If
> >> > paid from checking, start there.
> >>
> >> That is why I asked the OP to explain exactly what she is doing, I
> >> suspect she does not understand how transactions should be entered.
> >>
> >
> > This is one view, but the user will select software based on how well
> it's
> > idea of how things should be done coincides with their own.
> > If software cannot do it "their way" it is discarded, and after all -
> most
> > humans are not accountants.
>
> You have said she is frustrated with the way she currently does it,
> but it is not clear (to me anyway) exactly what she is doing.  If we
> knew that then we may be able to suggest an alternative that she was
> unaware of and would prefer.
>

Daily, she goes to each asset-account tab and enters a categorized expense
against that account.
She finds the need to select an account tabs for 1 or 2 item to be
frustrating and wishes for a single view in which she can enter categorized
expenses against any asset-account, with usefulness somewhat like ^T dialog
but in table view.


> > I didn't really want to have to find an alternative to gnu cash, and in
> my
> > view whatever makes it work for what a person needs, IS what they need.
> >
> > And as I'm not doing the accounts, whatever helps her do it solves my
> > problem :-)
> >
> > So I'm grateful to the authors and mailing contributors.
> >
> > Prior to this we had a large spread sheet with a pair of columns for each
> > account or expense (a running balance and an adjustment) so data entry
> was
> > very quick and simple. Try telling someone who is used to that how it
> > "should" be done :-)
>
> We are not trying to tell her how it should be done, we just want to
> make sure she is doing it the way that best suits her needs.  Hence if
> we knew exactly what she is doing we may be able to suggest a better
> way for her.
>

Sure, but I tried telling her how it should be done last night...

Sam


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