Autofilled Split Memos & Notes WAS Re: Split transactions memo field

Tommy Trussell tommy.trussell at gmail.com
Thu Dec 3 11:05:38 EST 2015


On Thu, Dec 3, 2015 at 8:54 AM, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:

>
> > On Dec 2, 2015, at 9:25 PM, Dorel Ciornei <dorelciornei at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> > For ex:
> > I pay at the grocery store with debit from the bank 100 for food and I
> in addition I get back 20 dollars cash.
> > The transaction would show:
> > Checking = -120 -> Description: "Kroger", Note on that line: "Spent at
> Kroger before weekend"
> > Groceries = +100 -> Note: "Food for thought and beer"
> > Cash = +20  Note: "Money I hid from my wife"
> >
> > Then if I open the Groceries account, I would see this transaction for
> $100 with the Note: "Food for thought and beer" while opening the Cash
> account I would see the 20 dollars deposited with the Note: "Money I hid
> from my wife".
> >
> > For me this was not a deal breaker since I don't hide money from my
> wife, but I wish I could enter these separate notes, just in case...
> > :)
> > Seriously, that would be useful, although kind of a luxury.
>
> Let’s review the free text fields available:
> * Transactions have Number, Description, and Note. Note is made visible by
> View>Double Line.
> * Splits have Action and Memo. A transaction’s splits are revealed by
> setting the view mode to Auto Split  Ledger or Transaction Jounal (set via
> the View menu), or by clicking the Split button in the toolbar.
>
> All of these fields are visible in every account register for which the
> transaction has splits.
>
> When the register’s view mode has the splits hidden, some fields from the
> split for that register’s account are displayed on the single or double
> line: Reconcile Status and credit or debit amount in the first line and
> Action in the second. You can optionally have the split’s Action replace
> the Transaction’s Number as well.
>
> ISTM that there’s already plenty of ways for you to annotate your
> transactions and the results can be made visible from any account’s
> register.
>

This is slightly off topic, but related....

One minor complication bites me every year -- once you've entered a memo,
autofill will re-populate it even when you can't see it in the register. I
usually don't use the auto-split register because the majority of my
transactions are "simple," where I buy just groceries at X store and just
auto parts at Y store, for example, and it's a lot easier to get the debits
and credits correct with simple transactions on the two-line register. When
I'm entering a complex multi-split transaction, then I know I will have to
pay careful attention to the split notes and totals.

However if I enter a memo on a simple transaction (no other splits) then
the memo (and presumably also an action? I don't use them much) will
autofill the next time I enter a similar transaction, and if I am just
using the two-line register I will not see it UNTIL I run a report.

When I run a Transaction report on Expenses:Groceries (for example), the
lines that have JUST a Description and Note and no memos on the splits will
print the Description and Note on the report. When I have Memos on the
splits, the Memo will "override" the Note, so if I have spurious autofilled
Memos they will appear on the report INSTEAD of the Notes.

Obviously even if this happens all the time it wouldn't matter at all until
you produce the report, but it's annoying to have to go back and "repair"
the spurious annotations later -- I wish the two-line register could show
that it has auto-filled some stuff that it's not showing. Maybe the
register could show the --split-- indicator even when there aren't actually
any additional splits; just an indication of some Notes you cannot see.

I suppose this is an enhancement request, but before I create a formal one
I thought I would throw it out now because this just bit me last night when
I was producing some reports for my CPA. I presume this affects other
folks, too, but I may not have described it well enough.


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