[GNC] GnuCash Reconciliation Documentation

D sunfish62 at yahoo.com
Sun Jan 27 04:26:50 EST 2019


David,

The various sections covering reconciliation have always made my head hurt. I agree that something should change.

You note that reconciliation is a generic concept, which I agree.

Because it is a general concept that might apply to any account, I think the description of the process actually belongs in Guide chapter 4 (Accounts). Details about the field itself should be moved somewhere in the chapter on transactions, although I don't have any spot in mind ATM.

I also agree that the reconciliation sections in particular account types ( "Checkbook", which eventually will be replaced with an "Assets" chapter; "Credit Cards", which will eventually be replaced with a "Liabilities" chapter; don't know about others) should refer to one main section on reconciliation.

However, I strongly object to putting the core of this text into the Help. As I've noted elsewhere, and attempted to implement, the Guide should contain the fullest description of Gnucash use, with the Help focusing on "What does this button do?" kinds of assistance.

Thus, I would recommend putting the lion's share of the text in Guide chapter 4, and streamline all the rest drastically, with references as appropriate. Be aware that if you undertake this, it will be a lot of work to arrive at one clear narrative--and that if you are moving a lot of text around the files, your changes may get held up by objections related to translations.

David T.

On January 27, 2019, at 7:31 AM, David Cousens <davidcousens at bigpond.com> wrote:

I've just had a look at the sections on reconciliation in the GnuCash guide. 

4.4  https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v3/C/gnucash-guide/txns-reconcile1.html
5.4 https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v3/C/gnucash-guide/cbook-reconacct1.html
5.8   https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v3/C/gnucash-help/acct-reconcile.html
7.5 
https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v3/C/gnucash-guide/cc-together1.html#cc-together-reconcile2


To my mind there is a lot of informationout of sequence. 

4.4 Is primarily discussing the reconciliation flags in transactions and
then goes off in 4,4,1 ia a discussion of the reconciliation setup windows
and the reconciliation winow itself a lot of which is subsequently repeated
without the screenshots in 5.8 and then again in 7.5 with a lot more
discussion about the process. 5.4 is a general discussion of the purpose and
function of reconciliation in the context of a checkbook.

This gives the impression that there is essentially something different
about the reconciliation of a bank account or a credit card account as
compared with any other account and the same information is maintained at
three dirfferent points.

I would propose restricting 4.4 to a discussion of the flags on individual
transactions with a link to the complete discussion as proposed below under
section 5.8 and then, consolidating the introduction from 5.4, discussion of
the windows from 4.4, and the process of reconciliation of any account 
under 5.8  as a general section on account reconciliation and the process
under 7.5 into a general section on reconciliation of accounts including
specific references to specific account types ( e.g credit card where the
interest payment is discussed etc) as required and then just provide a link
to this section from the current 7.5 and 5.4.

I would appreciate any feedback regarding this proposal from the doc
maintainers, developers and users re the value in doing the above and  any
alternative suggestions  or ideas with a view to rewriting the above
sections a little more coherently.

David Cousens



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David Cousens
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