GnuCash - suggestion for possible enhancement

[David Carlson]

On 5/11/2014 1:38 PM, Jim Thompson 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
>
>
>
> On Sun, May 11, 2014 at 6:25 AM, David Carlson
> <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com <mailto: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 <mailto: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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>     >
>
>     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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>
>

I agree that GnuCash should have some procedure to manually post a
scheduled transaction.  I think that the method that you are proposing
is a very interesting one.  I believe others have suggested something
along the line of having a button in the scheduled transaction editor
window to "Enter the Next Scheduled Transaction Now".  That may be
easier to implement.  Would that work for you? 

Another possibility would be if the highlighted transaction in a
register view is the product of a scheduled transaction then have an
additional option available under the right click menu (and somewhere in
the top menu bar)to "Enter the Next Scheduled Transaction Now".

Along the line that you suggest for having a transaction post early, you
can also set the transaction to get "Reminder" status in the "Since Last
Run" assistant ten days early and just let it linger with that status
until the day that you get the real information before you change the
status to "To Create".  I personally do not like that method (partly
because the SLR assistant gets pretty slow when there are a lot of
once-a-year transactions to muddle through), but it is possible using
the current code with no enhancement.

David C