GnuCash - suggestion for possible enhancement

John Filsak john.filsak at gmail.com
Sun May 11 14:55:33 EDT 2014


On 11 May 2014 19:38, Jim Thompson <jthomps6 at gmail.com> wrote:

> OK, thanks - I'll try to restate this...
>
> Yep, I've found the very handy ways to create Scheduled Transactions and
> the cool editor.  I have 10 scheduled trans, found the spiffy ways to
> schedule and the templates - all is well there.
>
> 7 of the 10 transactions have amounts that stay the same for a long time.
>  3 of them vary slightly from month to month.  I've now learned to make the
> templates for those 3 just have a dollar amount.  For example:  PayeeX
>  Monthly: 25 ... $123.00
>
> I've also scheduled the above example to post 10 days early - on the 15th
>
> Sometimes I notice the bill for PayeeX before the 15th, with an amount of
> 123.45 - so instead of waiting to correct the amount later, I'll enter the
> 123.45 now.
>
> What Quicken would do is notice that I'm manually posting PayeeX for 123.45
> for the 25th and say, "Is this the scheduled payment for PayeeX on 25th?"
>  If I say, "yes" ... it knows to skip this month's scheduled entry and move
> the scheduled payment to next month.  Actually Quicken seems to have a bit
> of a fudge factor as well... so (another example) if I post a payment for
> June 1, it might say, "is this the payment to XYZ scheduled for June 3?"
>
> If I don't manually enter the payment, it will automatically post and I'll
> fix it later (at least I have an approximate number, so I can see it
> coming).
>
> GC doesn't seem to notice the manual posting of a scheduled tran the way
> that Quicken does... so I get both - the manually entered one and the (now
> redundant) automatically scheduled one.  If I notice two payments of PayeeX
> on the same date (123.45 and 123.00) I can just delete the extra one... but
> GC would be a bit more clever if it emulated the Quicken trick and figured
> out to not post the extra one (after asking me if I'm posting a scheduled
> transaction).
>
> Worth the effort to change GC?  One can only put the suggestion out there
> and see if it gets some interest and enough votes to make it onto a list of
> enhancements. Perhaps I should post this to a developer list??
>
> Thanks,
> Jim
>
>
Has anyone suggested the possibility of entering a variable name into the
scheduled transaction template instead of an actual amount? It will then
prompt you for an amount when the transaction is created.

John.


>

> On Sun, May 11, 2014 at 6:25 AM, David Carlson
> <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > On 5/10/2014 8:27 PM, Tommy Trussell wrote:
> > > On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Jim Thompson <jthomps6 at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > >> Both Quicken and GC support Scheduled Transactions, but Quicken has an
> > >> extra feature I've not seen in GC.  When one manually enters a
> > transaction
> > >> which is also scheduled (and not yet automatically entered), Quicken
> > pops
> > >> up a window and says something like, "is this the scheduled
> transaction
> > for
> > >> xxxx?"  If the user replies with "yes" then Quicken knows that
> scheduled
> > >> event is already taken care of and it skips the scheduled one (instead
> > of
> > >> entering it a second time).
> > >>
> > >> The lack of this extra check in GC isn't a major pain - just have to
> be
> > >> aware of it.
> > >>
> > >> Why do I manually enter a scheduled transaction?  I've scheduled the
> > >> transaction as a reminder, in case I forget to enter a monthly bill...
> > but
> > >> these tend to be transactions where the amount can vary a little bit
> > each
> > >> month.  If I notice the actual bill amount before the automated entry,
> > I'll
> > >> just plug it in... otherwise I correct it later.  Quicken just helped
> a
> > bit
> > >> by noticing the manual entry might be the scheduled one...
> > >>
> > > Here's a feature you may not have noticed in GnuCash --
> > >
> > > Enter a transaction in your checking or credit account register, then
> > click
> > > on it (or any existing transaction) and choose the menu item:
> > >
> > > Actions --> Schedule...
> > >
> > > and you will activate the Schedule Transaction dialog, with all the
> > > information copied from the existing transaction. If you choose
> > Frequency:
> > > "Monthly" (for example) you will notice the scheduled transaction
> > defaults
> > > with a date one month in the future from the selected transaction. If
> you
> > > click the "Advanced..." button you will see that you can then modify
> the
> > > parameters to adjust how weekends are handled, or choose a different
> day
> > of
> > > the month, etc.
> > >
> > > I know this is "backwards" from what you are used to in Quicken, but
> it's
> > > actually a bit easier because it's MUCH easier to assign the credit and
> > > debit columns correctly in the "live" register than in the Scheduled
> > > Transaction register. (The scheduled transaction register is intended
> to
> > be
> > > a template so it allows you to enter variables or numbers that don't
> add
> > > up, so you have to supply the variables or "adjust" the scheduled
> > > transaction after it gets created.
> > >
> > > Give it a try, and you may decide you prefer the "GnuCash way." :-)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >> -----
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> > >>
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > >
> >
> > I always use that method to create scheduled transactions in GnuCash and
> > I love it.
> >
> > If a transaction that has been created by the "Since Last Run" assistant
> > is right clicked and scheduleed, the scheduled transaction opens in the
> > Scheduled Transaction editor.  This makes it easy to modify settings, if
> > desired.  I often change some of the text for the next instance, say in
> > the memo or description.  The only downside is that using that procedure
> > does not work if the original transaction is right-clicked.
> >
> > David C
> > _______________________________________________
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> > gnucash-user at gnucash.org
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> >
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