Recording and viewing Splits

[John Ralls]

> On Sep 22, 2015, at 6:42 AM, Alex <mcmurchy1917-gnucash at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> Hi All
> 
> If I record a cheque as income which needs to be allocated to a variety of Income accounts I set up a split transaction in the Bank Account (Asset).
> 
> I give it a general description and the total value of the cheque, then in each line of the split ignoring the Action field, I record a  specific description in the Memo field, the income account it relates in the Account field and then the value in the appropriate field
> 
> For sake of example say I have 5 lines in my split transaction all of which relate to one specific Income account but with different descriptions in the Memo field.
> 
> So my split transaction looks like
> 
> 
> 22/09/2015     BP     General Description
> Asset Account            £1000.00
>                                 Specific Description 1 Income Account                                 £200.00
>                                 Specific Description 2 Income Account                                 £200.00
>                                 Specific Description 3 Income Account                                 £200.00
>                                 Specific Description 4 Income Account                                 £200.00
>                                 Specific Description 5 Income Account                                 £200.00
> 
> 
> Why is it when I look at the Income account, it doesn't show the Memo Field where I've put the specific description, so all I see is
> 
> 22/09/2015     BP      General Description     -- Split Transaction --                                 £200.00
> 22/09/2015     BP      General Description     -- Split Transaction --                                 £200.00
> 22/09/2015     BP      General Description     -- Split Transaction --                                 £200.00
> 22/09/2015     BP      General Description     -- Split Transaction --                                 £200.00
> 22/09/2015     BP      General Description     -- Split Transaction --                                 £200.00
> 
> Whereas I would hope to see
> 
> 22/09/2015     BP      Specific Description 1     Asset Account                                    £200.00
> 22/09/2015     BP      Specific Description 2     Asset Account                                    £200.00
> 22/09/2015     BP      Specific Description 3     Asset Account                                    £200.00
> 22/09/2015     BP      Specific Description 4     Asset Account                                    £200.00
> 22/09/2015     BP      Specific Description 5     Asset Account                                    £200.00
> 
> 
> Have I misunderstood something or is this just a feature of gnucash.
> 
> BTW. If I generate an Account Report I see this -
> 
> 22/09/15    BP    General Description - Specific Description 1    -- Split Transaction --        £200.00
> 22/09/15    BP    General Description - Specific Description 2    -- Split Transaction --        £200.00
> 22/09/15    BP    General Description - Specific Description 3    -- Split Transaction --        £200.00
> 22/09/15    BP    General Description - Specific Description 4    -- Split Transaction --        £200.00
> 22/09/15    BP    General Description - Specific Description 5    -- Split Transaction --        £200.00

Because Description is a transaction field and Memo is a split field. The register displays the Description field on the transaction line and in Basic View that’s the only line displayed.

Whether or not it’s a feature is a matter of opinion, but it’s the way GnuCash is designed.

Regards,
John Ralls