[GNC] Misc Newbie Questions

[Eric Coates]

Adrien (and any others sufficiently interested)

I'm assuming the question was meant for me (or is that just ego?):

It's a personal requirement in two senses (1) I make no use of the 
business features of GnuCash and (2) it's because of that "fear of going 
into the red".

The first needs no comment.

The second, although now of less concern was, at one time, significant. 
To simplify the real situation (almost to the point of triviality) we 
[see below] have a current account (aka checking account) and a deposit 
account with different banks. Transfers from the current account to the 
deposit account is almost instantaneous, transfers in the opposite 
direction can take up to seven days. Having all the upcoming payments 
from the current account already entered allows for two situations:
(1) If there will be insufficient funds in the current account at some 
point it will "flash red" and I will have time to arrange a covering 
transfer from deposit to current.
(2) When our salaries/pensions are deposited (in the current account) I 
will be able to see the expected month end balance and so, possibly, be 
able to transfer cash to the deposit account (for its higher interest rate)

At the moment, in this low interest environment, the benefit of 
transferring to the deposit account is, to a first and probably third 
approximation, negligible. But I'm a man of habit!

I suppose what I'm doing is a form of budgeting.

I've never got into the reporting possibilities of GnuCash. To be frank 
- and with no implied criticism - I have difficulty with interpreting 
the ones I've glanced at. That may be because I use one set of books to 
keep track of my, my wife's and our joint accounts so the shear number 
of sub-accounts can be a little overpowering.

As an aside: I totally agree with your statement "the journey is part of 
the learning fun, even, or especially if you take detours" - although I 
might be tempted to put the word "fun" in quotes, "satisfaction" 
wouldn't need quotes.

Take care

Eric
======================================================


On 29/05/2019 20:58, Adrien Monteleone wrote:
> Out of curiosity, is this a personal requirement?
> 
> What is the end purpose?
> 
> If it is just to ???see??? what might transpire, the Future Scheduled Transactions Summary report might be helpful. (as might the Budget module)
> 
> The reason I pose the above questions is I often find that the original question of ???How do I do ???xyz??????? isn???t the actual desired answer because the questioner is already in a rabbit hole.
> 
> The real question is, removing all intermediate steps, what is the desired end result? What are you trying to accomplish? What is the end goal?
> 
> Usually, going back to that fundamental question will yield a clearer answer and result in a more efficient process or workflow to accomplish the task. (of course, the journey is part of the learning fun, even, or especially if you take detours)
> 
> Regards,
> Adrien
> 
> 
> 
>> On May 29, 2019, at 2:40 PM, Eric Coates <eric.coates at sky.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi
>>
>> My requirement is that on the first of the month all transactions due before the last day of the month are entered. My method does that but the one proposed by Bert Riding seems to be better. ("Seems" only because I'll need to check it against my "boring scheme of work" at month end. Luckily we have one of them coming up.) I knew of the "enter N days before due" technique but I assumed - wrongly - that the number of days was fixed for all transactions. Just goes to show, intuitive interfaces can help but reading the manual can really help.
>>
>> Take care
>>
>> Eric
>> ==============================
>>
>> On 29/05/2019 15:27, Stephen M. Butler wrote:
>>> On 5/29/19 2:16 AM, Eric Coates wrote:
>>>> Hi
>>>>
>>>>> 1)?????????? How can you enter a scheduled transaction before it's due date?
>>>>> (Used to check cash flow)
>>>>
>>>> Adrien Monteleone has given one method, I use a different one.
>>>>
>>>> Without going through my entire boring "scheme of works" for the last
>>>> day of the month I do want to enter all scheduled transactions for
>>>> thee following month (you call it "cash flow purposes", I call it
>>>> "fear of going into the red"). To do that I
>>>> (1) close GnuCash;
>>>> (2) set the system clock to a later date (in my case the last day of
>>>> the next month):
>>>> (3) open GnuCash, click the necessary buttons and check that all the
>>>> transactions have appeared (in my case in my current/checking account);
>>>> (4) close GnuCash;
>>>> (5) Reset the system date.
>>>>
>>>> I use Ubuntu and I find sometimes (not very often) the change of date
>>>> doesn't "take", that is why the checking is necessary.
>>>>
>>>> Different, not better
>>>>
>>>> Best wishes
>>>>
>>>> Eric
>>>>
>>> If you always want to see them 10-15 or even 30 days in advance, just
>>> edit that transaction (Actions:Scheduled Transactions:Scheduled
>>> Transactions Editor) and click the Create in Advance checkbox on the
>>> Overview tab.?? Adjust the number of days as desired.
>>> --Steve
> 
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information.
> -----
> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>