How to find and fix entry miss-dated to previous year (in General Ledger)

Sat May 27 11:54:28 EDT 2017

While this is somewhat ‘mild’ in terms of a way to avoid errant entries, it works well for me. I’ve encountered the problem presented here several times when I first started using GnuCash. I had a bad habit of typing dates too fast and not paying attention, then having to search for errant transactions.

Certainly, I learned reconciling helps tremendously as a filter. I even reconcile my cash on hand account.

Second, I took advantage of date completion. I only enter the month and day. I let GnuCash enter the year. Most of the time, I keep up to date so much now that I’m entering transactions on their actual day most of the time and I use the +,- keys to change the displayed date up or down.

Since utilizing these two methods, I’ve never had a problem with errant entry again. Of course this isn’t a complete solution, but it does help.

Regards,

Adrien

> On May 27, 2017, at 7:03 AM, Chris Serella <serella_c at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Thanks for the reply Don,
> 
> Firstly, you need to use "Reply All" to ensure the list gets your reply and not just the person you are responding to.
> 
> GNUCash is the only software I've used so I have no reference of other software or practices have an understanding of what is the common or expected practice. Your response makes sense don't get me wrong. The reason that I account the way I do with annual books rather than a continuous system comes down to ease.
> 
> It might seem old fashioned (I only started doing my business accounts for the last couple of years so I don't know).
> 
> You are right though for the purposes of reports it should be a persistent ledger which otherwise would require a separate module of some sort to compile reports from all of my books.
> 
> Regards retaining historical accounts, closing out the book and starting a new one does not prevent that. I have to keep two sets of books, one for the company and one self employment so i have a directory reflecting that with sub directories in each of 15/16 16/17 17/18 (as i said, only for the past few years) which does prevent incorrect data entry.
> 
> Anyways, I do think you are on the right path, GUI locking of previous years would be beneficial. that said, how would you go about dealing with circumstances where accounts are after a new year has started? EG, accounts for 16/17 don't have to be filed in the uk until 31 Jan 18 somebody doing accounts after april 5th 2017 would not be able to complete them because the year in question would  be restricted.
> 
> I guess one solution would be to have a button to manually remove the restriction but only for the current session, replacing it at closing gnucash or when manually reset.
> 
> I have just looked into the settings, there is one for date entry, you can set what the default for new entries is, current year or on a 12 month sliding scale (edit > preferences > Date/Time) Not sure if this helps, i just found it.
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> From: doncram <doncram at gmail.com>
> Sent: 27 May 2017 02:43
> To: Chris Serella
> Subject: Re: How to find and fix entry miss-dated to previous year (in General Ledger)
> 
> Thank you for being honest and telling me what I don't like to hear. :)
> 
> It seems increasingly clear that there is a base of happy GnuCash users who have a way of "closing" their year of data and starting afresh in a new file, which works for them, however odd it seems to me.   It might be called "old-fashioned", very much akin to manual / paper based historical accounting books.  I do think that you and the others should be supported in continuing to operate the way you do.  I want to help GnuCash get improved documentation, and reluctantly I am coming around to the realization that this old-fashioned way needs to be explained in several hard-to-write pages about the strange practice. :)
> 
> However, it is better for GnuCash to support (also) the now-expected, normal way of operating, in which all the data is kept, accumulates sensibly, allows reporting on all history of any one customer or any one account, etc.  What Quickbooks and Peachtree and bigger accounting packages all do, is support a way to close/lock older data, while keeping it available to allow for comparative reports, for lookups, for whatever.  This is what an accounting system does.  The main objection I understand to supporting that, which programmers point out (correctly), is that locking via the GUI does not prevent outright fraud by someone determined to change the data file.  Right, just like putting a combo lock on a storeroom does not absolutely thwart the most determined theives.  Like all management controls, it should not be over-sold.  However, locking via the GUI is what is requested from time to time, and what many potential users expect and want, and locking via the GUI is enough to prevent
>  accidental data entry into the older data.  It will be far easier to document this approach to "closing", in a few sentences.  Many more sentences will have to be used to explain, to most new users, why there is some other weird option also documented and using confusing language, which they should ignore. :)
> 
> Seriously, thanks for speaking up, this does help me sort out what I think needs to be written. :) --Don
> 
> On Fri, May 26, 2017 at 8:50 PM, Chris Serella <serella_c at hotmail.com<mailto:serella_c at hotmail.com>> wrote:
> 
> I know this probably isnt the answer your looking for, but I found by keeping seperate yearly books this will never crop up. If a wrong date is entered then its going to the top of the book so I can find and correct it.
> 
> As i am in the UK i just have to remember to change the date in preferences because its absolute, US tax dates are not the same I believe.
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+serella_c=hotmail.com at gnucash.org<mailto:hotmail.com at gnucash.org>> on behalf of doncram <doncram at gmail.com<mailto:doncram at gmail.com>>
> Sent: 26 May 2017 21:43
> Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org<mailto:gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> Subject: How to find and fix entry miss-dated to previous year (in General Ledger)
> 
> Because GnuCash doesn't provide password-locking on past years' data, it's
> possible you can accidentally give a past year's date to a new
> transaction.  If that happened, how can you possibly find and fix it?
> 
> Under Tools / General Ledger, i can see and edit General Ledger entries
> dated in 2017.  I added a few new entries there, accidentally-on-purpose
> dated April 1, 2015, and hit enter.  Poof! they disappear upon entry,
> cannot be seen.  I know they were accepted, because Reports / Assets &
> Liabilities / Balance Sheet reflects the changes to asset and liability
> accounts, in report labelled "Balance Sheet 12/31/2017".
> 
> Trying to see the expense account changes, I run Reports / Income & Expense
> / Income Statement, but the report labelled "Income Statement For Period
> Covering 01/01/2017 to 12/31/2017" doesn't show the 2015 expenses.  (Q1:
> how can I see an Income Statement for all time, or for 2015-2017, or for
> 2015?)
> 
> Trying to see the entries in Reports / Assets & Liabilities / General
> Journal, I find that works, yay!  I can see the 2015 entries.
> 
> Trying to see the entries in Reports / Assets & Liabilities / General
> Ledger fails...it states "Transaction Report: / No accounts selected  / This
> report requires accounts to be selected in the report options. / Edit
> report options".  Clicking on "Edit report options" seems to allow me to
> change a start date range for a report named "Transaction Report", but that
> has no effect.  Same if I change the report field to "General Ledger".
> (Q2:  how can I get any General Ledger report that I can see?)
> 
> I would like to see the entries in a General Ledger editing window and
> correct their dates, but I see no way to open such an edit window showing
> them.  (Q3: How can a 2015 General Ledger entry be changed?)  Note, I do
> see that I could compose reversing entries and enter them for the same 2015
> dates, to undo the accidental entries, but it would be far more
> straightforward to just correct the General Ledger entries directly, like
> can be done for 2017 entries.
> 
> Any suggestions will be appreciated! Thanks in advance, Don
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