bank reconciliation & split transaction

[David Carlson]

On 1/22/2014 6:08 PM, Carl Hofinga wrote:
> 1. I have tried bank reconciliation only once. I do not believe it functions correctly as I would expect it should. Normally, when a bank reconciliation is done, a report can be printed which will show beginning balance, deposits in transit, & un-cleared checks. Then a final balance that agrees with the general ledger. Instead, when finished clearing transactions for the bank statement period, any difference is placed in some type of imbalance account, which then appears in the general ledger. That is NOT correct. You are in balance with ending GL balance because of in transit deposits and checks.
>
> 2. Split – transaction. I believe the way this is programmed is very awkward. When there is already a split transaction (credit card charge for example) for a specific vendor already on record and I now want to enter a new single transaction for the same vendor, that when selecting this same vendor, I get a split transaction line. This then must be deleted in order to enter the single transaction. Not every transaction for the same vendor is a split transaction. More likely it is infrequent. My opinion is that it would be best to display a single line entry each time an existing vendor is selected even though it has had a split transaction previously. Then when a  split transaction for that vendor occurs, “split-transaction” is selected and displays only for that transaction.
>
> 3. My next challenge with GNUCASH is formatting a balance sheet & income statement  report with smaller type and printed lines closer together.   
>
> 4. Will GNUCASH someday have a comparative financial report showing 2 different periods -  months or years?
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Welcome to GnuCash. 

The issues that you bring up here are part of the unique experience of
using a financial program that is technically sound but still has some
quirks that come along with the good parts.

Taking each item separately:

1.  GnuCash does not have a 'Reconciliation Report' comparable to what
you find in some other products.  You are welcome to join the many other
users that would like to see that.  We have learned to make do without
it for now.  Your second part of that item is actually not related to
reconciliation but is GnuCash's way of telling you that when you entered
your transactions you did not assign some funds' source or destination
account. 

If you look at each of those transactions and change the destination
from Imbalance to the correct account, it will ultimately make your
other reports correct.  Those entries probably happened as the result of
importing transactions directly from a file that your bank generated. 
Learning how to avoid them is a topic beyond the scope of this email. 
Many of us just fix the ones that we miss after they happen.

2. You are seeing the behavior of the auto-complete function.  That is a
double-edged sword that cannot be tuned to be satisfactory for
everyone.  There are some ways to adjust it in the settings to be less
annoying, but I have forgotten what the settings are.  I usually have my
register view set to Auto split ledger with the double line box
checked.  That setting helps me to see whether I want to allow GnuCash
to auto-complete.

3 & 4. Reports are a group of topics that many of us want to see
improved.  If you come to this forum with specific questions someone
will be glad to tell you how they have learned to get what information
they needed into a report.

David C