[GNC] Auto-delete imbalance with no value in split

[Matthew Forbis]

I'm going to add a contrary example as to why I create an imbalance split semi regularly in my books.  This is an easy way to keep the transaction balanced if you don't have all the information at the time you need when you add a transaction.  The common scenario for me is my paycheck.  Our company requires you do be on VPN or at the office to access the pay stubs and get all the splits to enter into Gnucash.  My home computer where gnucash lives obviously does not have access to the work resources.  I use scheduled transaction for my paychecks and create them a few weeks in advance.  I will then update the bank deposit when I see it on my online bank account because that is the most important number in the immediate future, but I don't know which of the other splits needs to change on the paycheck to keep it balanced at the time.  Later, usually every few months, I will email myself a bunch of paystubs and go back and fill in the rest of the information like tax withholding info.  

So yes, it's easy to keep it balanced if you know everything, but I don't think it makes a lot of sense to make another temporary adjustment to the other splits if you are going to be going back and revisiting it in a few weeks.  So, in these cases, it would be nice to have it automatically remove the imbalance from the transaction as you make edits, though I understand the limitations as I've looked at making some changes in the code to this.  (I had lots of intentions to get into helping the developers though time never seems to materialize.


Thanks,
Matt




On Friday, April 10, 2020, 11:15:04 AM CDT, Stephen M. Butler <kg7je at arrl.net> wrote: 





On 4/9/20 11:13 PM, David Carlson wrote:
> It would be nice if zero value imbalances would disappear automatically,
> but they don't.  The methods described in the reference that you found ae a
> couple ways to get rid of them.  I usually delete the Imbalance split line
> from the asset or liability register where the transaction resides.

Usually happens because you hit the enter key in the middle of making
all the changes.  I found (at least up through 3.7 on Ubuntu 19.10) that
making all changes to all lines will remove that "extra" line that pops
up after modifying the first split.  Safe the enter key until it all
looks good again.

And yes, it would be nice that a "zero" split line would automatically
be removed when the enter key is hit.  This would be helpful when the
enter key is hit in the middle of making changes.  Keep on fixing the
remaining lines and let that Imbalance line go back to zero and have it
automatically disappear at the next enter key.

Would be helpful also in those cases where a transaction sits for hours
(days, weeks, months) with an unnoticed Imbalance split and you finally
come back to fix it.

Might be helpful just in general for any line that goes to a zero value
(but I think some folks use those lines for other purposes so they might
object).  I would be fine if it only happened for the "Orphan" and
"Imbalance" lines going to zero.

>
> On Fri, Apr 10, 2020 at 1:03 AM Håkon Fremstad <h.fremstad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi
>>
>> Whenever I change the value of a split-transaction, I get an imbalance
>> with the difference. And after I fix the imbalance in the
>> split-transaction the imbalance stays there with no value. Is there a
>> way to make these empty imbalances disappear automatically to make
>> things neater?
>>
>> I've tried searching for my problem in the archives. The closest thing I
>> could find was
>> https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2017-January/068469.html
>> but I don't think it's exactly the thing I'm wondering about.
>>
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>> Håkon
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> 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.
>>
>

-- 
Stephen M Butler, PMP, PSM
Stephen.M.Butler51 at gmail.com
kg7je at arrl.net
253-350-0166
-------------------------------------------
GnuPG Fingerprint:  8A25 9726 D439 758D D846 E5D4 282A 5477 0385 81D8



_______________________________________________
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.