[GNC] Misc Newbie Questions

Eric Coates eric.coates at sky.com
Thu May 30 08:17:27 EDT 2019


Adrien

Climbing learning curves is about the only thing I have energy for these 
days. Thanks for pointing out these hills (mountains?). Some time 
(hopefully soon) I'll start my exploration, in the meantime I'll be 
using Bert Riding's suggestion - at least that slope is fairly shallow.

Take care

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

On 29/05/2019 22:33, Adrien Monteleone wrote:
> Thanks Eric for the clarification,
> 
> I found that I got a better handle on the reports after I just played around with them for a bit. Some options are laid out or described in a way that while technically accurate, can be obtuse if not confusing.
> 
> To see what each option does, I just started fiddling and clicking the ???Apply??? button to learn what their effect was. Sometimes reading Help manuals actually helps, but in this case, I learned more by doing.
> 
> To your specific purpose, you might want to take a look at the following:
> 
> Balance Forecast
> Average Balance
> Cash Flow Bar Chart
> Income & Expense Line Chart
> 
> Each of these (as most reports) can be set for just a single account, so you can see what is happening to it alone if desired.
> 
> Also, the Multi-column report would allow you to have 2 or more (and other) reports all on one tab, which you could always keep open as a sort of ???dashboard??? if you will. One of these might be a Balance Forecast chart just for the Checking Account. Note, that chart offers you the option of a ???reserve amount??? and a ???target amount??? as lines you can display to see if you are projected to cross a danger zone.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Adrien
> 
>> On May 29, 2019, at 4:05 PM, Eric Coates <eric.coates at sky.com> wrote:
>>
>> 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
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