[GNC] Change account type by editing XML?

[Stephen M. Butler]

On 5/2/20 2:44 AM, Geert Janssens wrote:
> Op zaterdag 2 mei 2020 08:23:19 CEST schreef Adrien Monteleone:
>> Indeed, I clicked Edit on an Asset account and I can only change it to:
>>
>> Bank
>> Cash
>> Asset
>> Credit Card
>> Liability
>>
>> I get the first three if there is going to be a limitation, but allowing the
>> last 2 and not allowing even another debit balanced account like Expenses?
>>
>> Strange.
>>
>> I’m starting to wonder if this is a bug. If not, can someone shed light on
>> the reasoning for not being able to refactor accounts except within their
>> current parent type?
> The idea here is that you can't put expense accounts under the an Asset parent account. So if 
> you want to change an asset account to become an expense account, you will first have to 
> select a parent account that is an expense account. That will then allow you to change the 
> account type.
>
> I agree the UI can use some more polish to make this a better experience. The UI's original idea 
> was to show the valid account types that are available for a given parent account. I think this 
> would be more easily understood if the parent account and the accountype widgets would 
> switch places. It is more intuitive if a lhs selection (for left to right interfaces) affect what can be 
> selected in a rhs selector. Not the other way around.
>
> Playing with this a bit more I wonder if other combinations make sense or possibly conflict with 
> gnucash' internal assumptions. For example, are there valid use cases to store an income 
> account under an expense account or the other way around ?

For a small business I was carrying Cost-of-Goods-Sold (COGS) as an
expense item.  When my CPA filed the taxes, I noticed that he placed it
as a deduction to revenue.  So, after a chat with the in-house
accountant, I moved COGS to be under the Income parent.

Thankfully, the internal representation for amounts still worked
correctly and the COGS account now showed as a reduction to Income
without me having to go change the sign on each transaction.

>  
>
> And another minor glitch: when you start from for example an Asset account, then change the 
> parent to a liability account and back to an asset account without closing the window in 
> between, the asset account now suddenly has become a Liability account.
>
> Regards,
>
> Geert
> _______________________________________________
> 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