Moving transactions retrospectively

[Chris Good]

> > Message: 8
> > Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2016 16:39:41 +0200
> > From: Geert Janssens <geert.gnucash at kobaltwit.be>
> > To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org, stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com
> > Subject: Re: Moving transactions retrospectively
> > Message-ID: <4528947.v2Oyt0VW7k at legolas.kobaltwit.lan>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> >
> > On Monday 08 August 2016 10:32:50 Mike or Penny Novack wrote:
> > > I will start by pointing out that I have ZERO experience with the
> > > business features. But as a retired senior analyst, I know how I
> > > would attack this problem to find our what is or is not possible.
> > >
> > > a) I would created a copy of my books for test purposes. I would
> > > make the name of this file with test in its name to help prevent
> > > accidental production use.
> > >
> > > b) I would then investigate (using this test file what is or is not
> > > POSSIBLE with the direct editing of transactions in the A/R account.
> > > Yes I know, using the business features you aren't advised to do
> > > anything in this register manually. But I suspect:
> > >
> > > c) Opening a transaction in this register (one where I wanted to
> > > change the income account) I would look at it (Looking is almost
> > > always safe). If it looked normal, I would then see what happened if
> > > I changed the income account(the account being credited)  from what
> > > it currently is to what is desired. The worst thing that could
> > > happen is that the TEST FILE gets corrupted. But perhaps this would
> > > work.
> > >
> > Actually no. The transactions generated from invoice data are
> > read-only, so you can't make those changes from within gnucash. If you
> > try this straight away on the data file (bypassing gnucash), you are
> > creating inconsistent data, because the business features keep this
> > data in addition to what you see in the transactions. It's exactly to keep
> > this
> information consistent that the transactions have been made read-only.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Geert
> >

Hi Adam & Geert,

Adam,

Sorry for giving you bad advice. I was mistaken. Geert is the oracle in 
business transaction matters. Unposting, changing the income account, and 
reposting is the way to go, even though you will have to relink the payment to 
the invoice. If you're going to be using the business features, you need to be 
confident doing this anyway.

Geert,

There is nothing in the guide or help about read-only business transactions 
(as far as I can find), and the Business Features Issues wiki [1] doesn't 
really say much other than [2].

The wiki statement:

'Yet gnucash does not prevent direct manipulation because sometimes a manual 
intervention is needed to keep the books correct.'

And the fact you can (according to help ch7 Writing off a Bad  Debt)

' Change the asset or liability account, in the non Accounts Receivable split 
of the payment transaction, to the BadDebt expense account.'

contributed to my delusion(s?).

If you could give me some info about what conditions make a business 
transaction read-only, I'd be happy to update the documentation?

[1] http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Business_Features_Issues

[2]http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Business_Features_Issues#..._or_I_can.27t_delete.2Fedit_a_transaction_of_type_.22.3F.22_from_the_AR.2FAP_account

Regards,
Chris Good

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