[GNC] Reconciliation

[David Carlson]

It is interesting that the condition that I call 'pending edits' appears in
several of the previous comments.  GnuCash has allowed users to start an
edit to a transaction then navigate away from the incomplete edit, leaving
it out of view, and incredibly difficult to find and resolve later in some
cases.  There is a good reason for allowing this, but it creates
difficulties when trying to 'clean up'.

First, my experience is limited to using the XML format data file.  I am
not sure how it works with database format files.

I have usually been able to find and resolve 'pending edits' by
periodically clicking on the 'Save' button and watching to see if it goes
without incident or if it asks about an incomplete edit somewhere.  I never
say yes, because more than half the time if is an artifact of some spurious
keystroke somewhere that started an edit that I did not want to make, and
it would introduce an error if accepted.  Many cat owners have this happen
on a regular basis.

GnuCash only gives a vague clue about how to actually find these pending
edits.  It seems to me that, if it knows about a pending edit, GnuCash
could provide an internal link or three to navigate directly to the
specific transaction(s) in the specific register view(s)  for the user to
review and resolve.  I have an enhancement request <
https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=793225> that covers part of this,
I thought I had a more generic one, but I am having trouble finding it
today.

It appears that the reconciliation process is a case that can be corrupted
by the existence of 'pending edits' in transactions that are being
processed.  If that is the case, GnuCash should test for 'pending edits' at
some point and require the user to resolve them.  That would require a new
bug report by someone who can reproduce the problem.

David Carlson



On Thu, Nov 21, 2019 at 11:12 AM Adrien Monteleone <
adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net> wrote:

> Simply re-reconciling and checking off those transactions should be
> sufficient. You just want to set the flag.
>
> I wouldn’t necessarily call this a bug, but perhaps file an RFE to add a
> check that there are no transactions in the affected register in an
> ‘editing state’ when the reconcile window opens. That would prevent this
> case. Though I’m not sure how difficult that would be to implement or if it
> is so rare as to instead warrant a wiki or Help entry instead.
>
> Regards,
> Adrien
>
> > On Nov 21, 2019 w47d325, at 10:57 AM, Dale Alspach <alspachde at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Something like this has happened to me (on linux Mint, several recent
> > versions of gnucash) though not exactly what you are reporting.
> > I do not usually check the starting balance so it could be the same. Here
> > is a description of what happens.
> >
> > I mark the reconciliation box for some transactions in a register and
> move
> > around without ever hitting enter. This seems to leave these newly marked
> > transactions in an odd (uncommitted) state. Clicking Reconcile produces
> the
> > usual window with these transactions and previously marked transactions
> > listed as cleared. I complete the reconciliation and balances agree in
> the
> > reconciliation window. However upon finishing the reconciliation and
> > examining the register, I find that those uncommitted transaction changes
> > have been lost and those transactions are not marked reconciled. This
> will
> > disturb the balances for the next reconciliation.
> >
> > My workaround is to alter the balance I enter as the statement balance by
> > the sum of these incorrectly marked transactions. It could be that if I
> > check that the starting balance is off by that amount.
> >
> > Dale
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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.
>


-- 
David Carlson