Enhancement Request for GNUcash

[Adrien Monteleone]

Jesse,

I think at least the first two requests are already implemented.

No one is stopping you from editing your opening balance entries.

You can modify them to your heart’s content.

Heck, I changed some of mine because they were initially estimates and I didn’t have all of my documentation. Once I did have those papers in hand, I edited them. (rather than enter ‘correcting entries', I knew the originals were estimates and that I was going to make corrections, and because these books are just for me, I saw no need to document this fact)

If I had some need to make any corrections now, years later, I could just do so, however, this might throw off reconciled accounts, so it would be best to do this as a correcting entry.

As for the second request, when you are editing your original opening balance entries, you can do math like a calculator in the debit and credit fields. (you can do this in any register)

So if your present opening cash on hand balance is say $300, just change it to be "300+50" and hit the tab key. GnuCash will obligingly do the math and change the amount to $350. Of course you’ll need to do this for both debits and credits as appropriate to make the transaction balance. (or just leave it as Orphan if you’re just playing games and don’t want to loose track of how much to back out when you’re done. Just open the Orphan register and fix all of your entries.) You can use all four major operators +,-,*,/ as well as () to change precedence. I’m not sure about ^ (powers) though I suspect you can since exponents are useful in present value equations which can be used in the Scheduled Transaction editor and so likely can also be used in any register, though that is just a guess.

As for requests 3 & 4, GnuCash doesn’t initiate actual transactions. You can only record them, either manually, or by importing them from a financial institution or other source. It is not a ‘payment processor.’ (though I’m sure lots of people would like it to be - especially converts from the Intuit world)

However, you are presently free to record whatever you please in GnuCash. You are limited only by your imagination and your willingness to figure out the transaction entry. This of course assumes you are keeping books just for you. If you are preparing legally required financial reports, you’ll have to abide the laws of your jurisdiction - not so free. GnuCash can’t change the law for you.

All of that should directly address your specific requests, however, I sense they are misplaced. Yes, our monetary system is not the best or particularly free. (I know of no country that has such a system so ‘our’ would apply everywhere) But I don’t think ‘free’ with respect to monetary systems implies some of the things you think it does. Hard money, a la, gold and silver coin, is much more ‘free’ than consumer credit cards, but they still don’t give you the magical or fanciful ability to simply multiply your current balance (by altering your original balance - post hoc) to any amount you choose. You have what you have, and that is that.

Finally, you are free not to use GnuCash. Other than actual accounting software options, you can use spreadsheets, your own customized database, or even plain text files. There’s even a plain text accounting website with its own formats, conventions, and just about anything you could imagine. It is probably the most ‘free’ method of doing accounting because you aren’t locked into ANY method or format and your data is always portable. (of course, data quality and reliability might suffer your whimsical alterations of real life amounts, but that has nothing to do with your software choices)

Regards,
Adrien

> On Dec 4, 2017, at 1:39 PM, Jesse Cochran <jessecochran316 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> To whom it may concern,
> 
> Given how limited and un-free our monetary system is nowadays, I think
> GNUcash would make a great tool for the following freedoms below:
> 
> 0 > The Freedom to modify your starting and ending balance. This means you
> can take a @200 balance (yes, I'm using the @ symbol for example use), and
> turn it into @200000 without the need to transfer anything.
> 
> 1 > The Freedom to add and subtract from your ending balance like a
> calculator.
> 
> 2 > The Freedom to send and receive money in any amount you choose.
> 
> 3 > The Freedom to exchange this currency for other currency of any amount
> or size.
> 
> So I am generically requesting a feature that allows this  to be
> implemented into GNUcash, just to exercise this right.
> 
> Thanks for understanding,
> 
> Jesse.
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