ORPHAN vs. IMBALANCE

[Adam Funk]

On 2015-02-09, Mike or Penny Novack wrote:

>> There are situations where a bookkeeper might not be sure where (for 
>> example) to post an expense, and needs somewhere to “park” it so as 
>> not to interrupt data entry. Once the right expense account has been 
>> identified, the Orphan or Imbalance can be corrected at leisure. In 
>> paper-and-pencil days a Suspense account was used to make sure the 
>> books balanced in such circumstances (or more usually because a 
>> transcription error stopped the books from balancing), and this is 
>> essentially what the Orphan and Imbalance features are providing. I’m 
>> content with the status quo, but would accept a warning about a 
>> posting to Orphan or Imbalance with the opportunity of going back to 
>> fix the offending transaction. Michael
>
> OK, different things here, and all of them might be useful.
>
> 1) "Imbalance" and/or "Orphan" ---- Sometimes, in the middle of entering 
> a transaction, you realize that you need an account that does not yet 
> exist in the chart of accounts. What do you want to happen? Have to 
> abort the transaction , create the account(s), and reenter the 
> transaction? Or would you prefer to complete the transaction (using 
> "Imbalance" or "Orphan"), create the account(s), and then fix the 
> transaction> Keep in mind that some research might be needed or 
> consultation with your accountant.

You can create a new account on the fly while entering a split: you
type what you want (using colon-completion as needed) & GnuCash brings
up a dialog asking if you want to create Expenses:House:Whatever; if
you click "yes", it brings up the standard account creation dialog,
pre-loaded with sensible defaults.  This feature is IMHO absolutely
brilliant.  I don't use it often, but it saves me a lot of hassle when
I do.