ORPHAN vs. IMBALANCE

[Liz]

On Mon, 09 Feb 2015 18:10:23 -0500
Mike or Penny Novack <stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com> wrote:

> > 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.
> ______________________________________________
> 
> Ah yes, I knew that. But "on the fly" is not how I am comfortable 
> changing the chart of accounts. On the fly I might know the name I
> would probably give the (new) account but not necessarily where in
> the tree, and proper/logical tree redesign might involve creating a
> new parent account (placeholder) under which some existing account
> and this new account now go as children  The point is, at least in MY
> case, I want to sit back and think how I should be changing the chart
> of accounts whenever a change is needed. Not a "quick, on the fly"
> decision.

Gnucash does allow you to move accounts around in the future, so you
are not stuck with a bad decision.
But I still have use for a "suspense" account, and different to the
ORPHAN or IMBALANCE.
Suspense is a longer term placement. Orphan and Imbalance tell me I've
got a data entry error and I remove them as soon as I can.