[GNC] De-Reconciliation Settings

[John Ralls]

> On Apr 29, 2019, at 12:54 AM, David T. via gnucash-user <gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:
> 
> It was pointed out to me in another thread that one can reset specific warnings flags using Action->Reset Warnings. 
> 
> I’d like to raise a couple of points with this dialog, now that I have been introduced to it…
> 
> First off, the dialog is quite opaque, insofar as it is (apparently) only showing warnings for which I have selected options previously. There is no way for me to determine what (if any) other options I have here. I imagine it would be a whole lot clearer if I could have a listing of all the various options, along with their current setting. It is counterintuitive to me the way it is set up here.
> 
> Be that as it may, I have three entries listed here: “Change contents of reconciled split”“Remove a split from a transaction”“Commit changes to a transaction”
> 
> The first setting listed here refers to the behavior of de-reconciling a split in GnuCash. However, if a user changes Transaction-level data elements—such as the Description field—a split will become de-reconciled. Therefore, this preference is misnamed, and should be changed, since I should receive an alert if I change the description and the reconcile flag gets reset. Perhaps “Change reconcile flag upon edit” would be better?
> 
> Second, it seems to me that the boundary for when a split becomes de-reconciled needs to be drawn differently. I know this issue was discussed recently, and there were reasons given for why the logic falls the way it does. However, reconciliation applies to the *split*, as shown by the fact that each split in a transaction can be separately reconciled in its own account. Changing the status of the split based on a change in the transaction is inconsistent and illogical to me. 
> 
> I have transactions with as many as ten splits, in which several splits are reconciled. If, for some reason, I then change the description of the transaction, then every one of those reconciled splits will get de-reconciled-- requiring me to reconcile every linked account.
> 
> Finally, I will note that the program is at least consistent, in that when you change a description field, it does in fact change every cleared split in that transaction. I do, however, question whether that is the correct action to impose. 
> 

David,

Did you read the description at the top of the dialog? It says 
"You have requested that the following warning dialogs not be presented. To re-enable any of these dialogs, select the check box next to the dialog, then click OK."

What's unclear about that? It's not a "manage warning dialogs" dialog, but it doesn't claim to be. You can file an enhancement asking for one if you like.

I agree that the "change reconciled splits" is a bit misleading. The actual dialog with the warning is called "Change transaction with a reconciled split". Both the setting and the tool-tip imply that it's per-split rather than per-transaction.

I'm ambivalent about whether changing the transaction should de-reconcile a split, but it seems clear to me that changing the transaction date should as that affects the ordering of the split when calculating the balance, so ISTM that should continue to unreconcile all of the splits in the transaction.

I also noticed while checking the reset warnings dialog that it doesn't take effect during the current session. I filed https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=797222 to track that.

Regards,
John Ralls