Scheduled transactions

[Tommy Trussell]

On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 11:53 AM, David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com
> wrote:

> On 9/26/2013 8:59 AM, Michael Hendry wrote:
> > On 26 Sep 2013, at 12:07, Geoff Jankowski <geoff.jankowski at me.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> I have set up some scheduled transactions that automatically enter the
> account on the set date.  Hoever, occasionally I pay earlier than the
> scheduled activity.
> >
> > Arrange for the relevant scheduled transactions (SXs) to be created in
> advance of the due date; edit the date of the transaction if you pay it
> early.
> >
> > (Use Actions->Scheduled Actions=>Scheduled Transaction Editor,
> Double-click the scheduled transaction, tick the box marked "Create in
> advance" in the Overview Tab, and enter the number of days).
> >
> > This has the advantage that you get a warning of pending transactions
> when you look at the relevant bank or credit card account, and may be able
> to avoid an unplanned overdraft.
> >
> > I use a similar method when my phone bill comes in - I have a scheduled
> transaction set up for a figure which exceeds my expectation of the direct
> debit that will be applied to my bank account, and when I'm notified of the
> correct figure I adjust it.
> >
> >
> > May I ask why you need to be so precise about the date on which you made
> the payment?
> >
> > I can see there might be some scope for confusion if you made an extra
> payment in any given month, but if it's just a matter of paying a week or
> two early, who cares? After all, you would normally enter a payment by
> cheque as taking place on the date you signed it, knowing that it'll be a
> few days before it is cleared through your bank, direct debits may occur a
> day or two on either side of the expected date, and salary and pension
> payments are usually paid early if the scheduled date isn't a banking day.
> >
> >> In Quicken I was able to force the entry of the next iteration of the
> schedule and it loks as if I should be able to in gnucash as there is an
> "Enter" button in the template area that tells me it records the current
> transaction but whenever I try to use it, nothing happens.
> > I think this button simply saves any changes you've made in the SX, it
> doesn't actually create a transaction.
>


> Like Geoff, I also wish to sometimes enter scheduled transactions into
> the register earlier than the scheduled date.  One reason is that I
> might go on vacation and need to get ahead several days so that I don't
> have a mess when I return.  I am guessing that a lot of us would use
> this feature if it existed.  As far as I know, there is no way to
> override the scheduled entry date only this time.  Also, like Geoff, I
> do not want to manually change the entry date just for one month for 20
> or so transactions, then manually change it back for 20 or so, one at a
> time.  A long time ago I entered an enhancement bug report for this but
> I don't remember the bug number.
>
> I wonder if you are confusing the scheduled transaction entry date with
> the actual payment date.  There are a variety of reasons that a user may
> want to do either task early.  As for paying early, many of us have the
> option to schedule a delayed payment at their bank if they wish to wait
> until after the paycheck is deposited, for example.  We still want to
> enter it into GnuCash ahead of the actual payment date too.
>
> GnuCash should be flexible enough to meet everyone's needs.
>
> David C
>

You CAN have GnuCash create the transactions whenever you want, postdated
however you need. Here's an example...

I examine my bills, and I see that the gas company gives me about 22 days
between when I receive the statement and before they draft the amount from
my bank account, so I have the "Remind in Advance" field set to 22 days,
and the creation date on whatever day of the month the gas company drafts
the bill. (You can even have GnuCash adjust automatically for weekends.)

When I get my gas bill (online nowadays) I open the Since Last Run dialog,
and scroll down to the name of the gas company and see "Reminder" next to
the gas company line. I click on that "Reminder," and it's a menu that I
can change to "To Create." I also check the "Review created transactions"
checkbox. When I click OK on the Since Last Run dialog, the transaction
gets created, and it creates a special register of the created transactions
where I can adjust the actual draft date and the actual amount in the
resulting register.

When I want to get even fancier, I enter letters instead of a number in the
amount columns in the scheduled transaction. When I do that, the Since Last
Run dialog requires me to enter an amount to replace the letters. For
example, I can put nn like this:

  Expenses:Utilities:Gas nn
  Assets:Current Assets:BigBank Checking      nn

Then the Since Last Run dialog will not budge until it's happy with the
amount I put in. :-) (Actually there's some sort of focus problem with the
dialog. If I click or tab just wrong often the amount entered in the dialog
disappears. I think it's supposed to be able to do some algebraic
expressions with the letters and numbers to enter complicated formulas, but
I can never get it to work consistently. I usually find it easier just to
put in dummy numbers in the template and enter the actual amounts when I
"Review created transactions," as described above.)

I hope all that was clear. Play around with it -- the scheduled
transactions are great and can do all sorts of things for you.

P.S. There has been a more serious bug with the Since Last Run dialog, and
I hope it has been fixed, but I haven't tested it in awhile. At one time I
discovered if I "Postpone" a transaction, it disappears completely. It's
better (and works just as you would hope) to set the status back to
"Reminder" if you have passed the Create Transaction date but you want to
enter that transaction later. I should test that again sometime -- on a
dummy data file.

P.P.S.: Years ago I also entered an enhancement request bug on the Since
Last Run dialog -- I think the words should have some decoration around or
beside them so it's clear you can click on them to get a pop-up menu. It
would never have occurred to me to click there until I read a discussion on
this list.


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