Does GnuCash possess a Journal Entry numbering facility

[Michael Hendry]

On 1 Oct 2014, at 17:54, David Britton <bbaruu at gmail.com> wrote:

> Many accounting systems do have this.  Choosing to export the JE# field
> along with its Date permits searching for subsequent JEs that predate a
> reconciled balance so as to show the "offending" entry.  The other main use
> is to provide a unique reference#.
> 
> Dave Britton


I put in a request for this in 2011, but received a resounding “NO”.

See:

http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/Generating-a-unique-transaction-number-tc3478309.html

I had been used to having my previous software generate a unique number for each transaction, marked this on receipts, invoices etc., which I then filed in transaction number order.

I work around the lack of support for this feature by generating my own number as I enter transactions - I use the General Ledger register window, sorted in numerical order, to pick out the highest number already used, and move on from there. It’s simple enough if I’m working through a pile of credit card slips on the same account, as I just have to use the + key in the number field, but I have to watch out for duplicates when I switch between accounts, as the + key works locally to each account.

Having all the source documents stored in the order in which I entered them through Gnucash makes it easier to spot missing documents (because of a break in the sequence), and simplifies checking for duplicate entries when repeated transactions for the same amount are involved in reconciliation difficulties.

Michael